


Kingdom Hearts: Winchester Chronicles

by SkyboundSparrow



Series: Winchesters and Wielders [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, Supernatural
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-18 13:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3572183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyboundSparrow/pseuds/SkyboundSparrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The end of the world came sooner than either Sam or Dean predicted. Black shadow things skittered across the Earth’s surface, their yellow eyes peering out at their surroundings. They twitched and jumped around, attacking people and breaking into things. And no matter what weapons they tried to use against the creatures, they just kept coming and coming. Dean cursed as his gun ran out of ammo and with no time to reload he was forced to pull out a knife, though he may as well not have. Their attempts were in vain and after a few more moments the brothers were overwhelmed by shadows.</p><p>After Dean's world is destroyed, he finds himself in a new place called Traverse Town and sets off to find out what happened to his brother, Sam, and his friend Castiel, meeting a cast of characters along the way. He finds himself far deeper into the conflicts of his newly expanded universe than he would've liked, in the middle of the fight between Light and Darkness, and the only way out is through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work takes place starting at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and picks up sometime during Season 5 of Supernatural for the Winchesters and Castiel.

The end of the world came sooner than either Sam or Dean predicted. Black shadow things skittered across the Earth’s surface, their yellow eyes peering out at their surroundings. They twitched and jumped around, attacking people and breaking into things. And no matter what weapons they tried to use against the creatures, they just kept coming and coming.

Sam and Dean stood back to back, shooting and hacking at whatever came their way.

“Cas! Castiel!” Dean yelled to the heavens as he shot another couple of the dark shadows. “Get your feathery ass down here! We need help!”

“He’s not coming Dean,” Sam replied over gunshots.

Dean gritted his teeth. Of course Cas wasn’t coming. If he wasn’t there by now, he was never going to be. He cursed as his gun ran out of ammo and with no time to reload he was forced to pull out a knife, though he may as well not have. Their attempts were in vain and after a few more moments the brothers were overwhelmed by shadows.

Dean’s world went dark. The last thing he heard was Cas' rough voice calling his name.

“Hey. Hey, dude,” a grumpy male voice cut through the darkness. “You gotta get up. You're blocking the entrance to my shop.”

Dean’s eyes opened slowly. “Where am I?” His vision slowly cleared, blurry blobs becoming well-defined shapes. He was lying on a cold cobblestone ground, the harsh glow of neon partially obscured by a human-shaped form.

“Traverse Town,” he replied. “Now get up.”

Dean sat up, his head throbbing. There was some kind of town center in front of him illuminated by streetlamps. There were some other folks around town, though none of them really paid any attention to him. He turned to look at who the voice belonged to, but the man had already gone inside the shop. The giant neon sign above the door said “Acessories” and another brightly lit sign advertised jewelry slightly above and to the left of it.

The hunter dragged himself to his feet and pushed open the wooden door leading into the shop. The man at the counter looked up. He was burly guy with hardened eyes. His blonde hair stuck up into a point behind the aviator goggles he had strapped to his forehead. He chewed on a toothpick sticking out of his mouth like no tomorrow. “Well look who it is. Finally awake are you?”

“Where am I?” Dean asked again.

“Traverse Town. You hard of hearing or something?”

“Where’s that? United States? Canada? Mexico, maybe?”

The man laughed. “I forgot. You’re new. There are multiple worlds out there, all separate from each other. Your world was one of the unlucky ones. It’s gone, kid.”

Dean shook his head, trying to comprehend the situation. “No, no, no, you don’t understand. We were supposed to have more time.” He slammed his fist on the counter. “Lucifer wasn’t supposed to destroy the world, not before…”

The man scoffed. “No, you don’t understand. I don’t know what you’re blabbering on about, but your Lucifer is not the one who did this.”

“Then who did?”

“There’s these things called Heartless and they get to the core of a world, then they just swallow the world whole.”

“Swallow it?”

“Are you deaf or somethin’ kid? Yeah, swallow. It gets destroyed.”

Dean frowned. Then it hit him, the realization like a ton of bricks. Sam. What happened to Sam? Bobby? Castiel? All those people on planet Earth? “What- what happens to the people?”

The man shrugged. “Depends. Some get swallowed with the darkness too. Others get scattered among the worlds, like you.”

The man’s answer got him thinking. Then Dean asked the one question he was scared of most: “Have you seen my brother, Sam? Tall kid” -he showed the shop owner by placing his hand several inches above his head to indicate his moose of a brother’s height- “brown hair to his shoulders, wearing plaid? Any of that ringing a bell?”

The man stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Nah. You should take a look around though, maybe you’ll find him. Most folks seem to make their way here anyway.”

“Thanks,” Dean replied. He held out his hand for the man to shake. “Dean Winchester.”

The man glanced at his hand before roughly shaking it. “Cid. Good luck finding your brother.”

Dean nodded and then left the store. He reloaded his gun, finally, and headed out to explore the town. Dear Lord, he hoped Sam was here. Sam had to be here. He didn’t know what he’d do if Sam didn’t make it.

After an hour of searching, Dean concluded that Sam was nowhere to found in the main part of town, the part that he picked up on that was called the First District. He stood in front of the big double wooden doors that lead to the Second District, the district that locals told him was filled with Heartless.

“You owe me one, Sammy,” Dean muttered before walking through the door.

The Heartless were on him the moment he walked through the door.

He shot at them, most shots hitting their mark and the Heartless would vanish in wisps of darkness. He pulled out a knife in his other hand and before he knew it, the wave of Heartless was gone. He stood panting in the middle of the Second District. It was another part of town, obviously, but a lot bigger and a heck of a lot empty. There were shops and hotels and even what looked to be like a bell tower. The water from the fountain sounded in the background. It was a damn shame that all these Heartless made it uninhabitable.

Suddenly, something shot past him. Dean caught the glimpse of a kid with bright yellow shoes and bright red pants go past him and then down an alleyway, chains clinking with every step the kid took. Something big and metal glinted in his hand, a sword, maybe?

“Hey kid, it’s dangerous out here!” Dean called, but the kid had already disappeared  around the corner. Dean sighed and ran after him, seeing no choice. Dumb kid.

When he turned the corner, the kid was gone. At the end of the alley was a door to the Third District, another district of the town that its residents had told him to void. “Damn it. I’m going to regret this, aren’t I?” He went in.

The district seemed calm enough, harmless enough, on first glance.  Dean saw the kid from earlier step into the main courtyard, only to be piled on by- a duck and a dog? Even from where Dean was standing, he could hear them both shout with glee, “The key!”

In the kid’s hand was a giant key. What the hell kind of world did Dean step into? There wasn’t much time for anything else when the ground began to shake. Dean hopped down into the courtyard, almost spraining his ankle in the process, before huge columns of the courtyard floor rose to block them all in.

There was a rattling sound, like metal, and in front of the fountain in the corner, arose a huge armored Heartless. Its limbs moved freely, disconnected from the rest of it. Its stomping created a shockwave that nearly took Dean off his feet. He saw the kid, the duck, and the dog get into fighting positions so he grabbed his gun and his knife and ran out to join them. If they were surprised to see Dean, they didn’t show it. Instead, they jumped right into the fight.

Metal clashed together as the key kid swung at the giant Heartless that must've been more than two stories tall. Dean soon ran out of bullets and found himself using his knife more and more, though it wasn’t exactly useful because of its such short range. Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted the dog with the knight hat using his shield to combat the Heartless while the duck in a blue mage’s robe shot fireballs at it.

The four fought side by side until the Heartless finally clashed to the ground with a loud bang. A little pink heart rose up to the heavens and the armor faded into nothing.

Dean turned to the kid. “Not bad, if I do say so myself.”

The kid grinned. “Thanks. The name’s Sora.”

“Dean.”

“Donald,” the duck said with an odd lisp.

The dog grinned. “The name’s Goofy. We’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Who, me?” Sora asked.

Donald nodded. Another voice spoke up and Dean looked up to see who it was. A man clad in a black leather jacket with black pants and a white shirt. A pale scar sliced his face diagonally in half. His short spiky hair came just to his shoulders. Multiple belts were strapped around his waist and forearms. He was accompanied by a lithe woman with clear blue eyes and short black hair. She wore a green halter top with blue straps, faded yellow shorts, pale socks up to her thighs, yellow shoes, and a yellow scarf.

“They, too, have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade,” the man said. He glanced at Dean, but didn’t say anything to him.

“Hey, why don’t you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel,” Goofy said to Sora.

 _Other… worlds?_ thought Dean. How many other worlds could there _be_?

Sora looked down at the ground. “I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…”

“Of course,” replied Donald. Sora visibly perked up at that.

Goofy leaned down to Donald, saying in a low voice, “Are you sure?”

“Who knows? But we need him to come with us to help us find the King.”

The man in leather stepped forward. “Sora, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends.”

Dean looked sharply at Sora. “You lost people too?” Sora nodded. “I’m looking for my brother.”

Sora looked at Donald hopefully.

“No. We don’t have enough room.”

“But-”

Dean cut in. “It’s fine. I travel better alone anyway. But if you meet a tall guy named Sam, let him know that I’m looking for him, will ya?”

Sora nodded. His attention turned back to the duck and Goofy. “Okay, I’ll go with you guys.”

Donald and Goofy put their hands- or er, wing in Donald’s case- on top of each other between them. Sora placed his on top. “All for one, and one for all!” Goofy said with a grin.

Dean smiled and headed for the door. As he passed the man and the woman standing idly by, he stopped. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to get to another world, would you? I need to find my brother.”

The woman smiled. “I know exactly who you can talk to.”

That was how Dean ended up in front of Cid’s accessory shop again. He walked in and asked Cid flat out, “You can get me a ship to go to other worlds?”

Cid looked at him sharply. “Who told you that?”

“Some chick named Yuffie and her pal Leon,” Dean replied. “I need one. My brother’s not here. If I have any hope in finding him, I need a ship. I’ll do whatever it takes.”

He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Okay, I’ll help, but it’s gonna cost you.”

“Like I said, I'll do whatever it takes.”

 

* * *

Sam woke up on the stone cold ground. His muscles ached and his head hurt with a fierce burning. When he heaved himself up, his muscles screamed in protest. He was in a circular room with a table in the center that had a map on it. Two huge holes in the rock gave the view of a large body of water, dark and foreboding, with no sign of sunlight.

“Ah, good, you’re awake,” someone said, coming into the room. It was a guy wearing a long black robe that tumbled down onto the floor. His skin was a light gray and blue flames calmly blazed on his head. His chin was long and he had these shifty yellow eyes that made Sam on edge. “For a moment there I thought you’d be joining my legions of the dead.” He gave Sam a toothy grin.

“Legions of the… dead?” Sam asked.

“Excuse me, I’m Hades, Lord of the Underworld,” he said, holding out his hand for Sam to shake. “And you are?”

“Sam,” he said, glancing at the hand warily. “Sam Winchester.”

Hades's eyebrow hitched up a bit at the name. With no sign of Sam taking it, Hades pulled back his hand. “Winchester, eh? Well it was quite rude of you to drop in like that. You’re lucky I pulled you out of the water before those greedy dead dragged you in too far.”

“Um, well, thanks.”

Hades rubbed his hands together. “Since I kind of saved your life- ironic, right?- I need you to do me a favor.” Sam was about to respond when Hades added, “I’ve just signed you up for the Games.” A ticket appeared in Hades’s hand. “Consider it... payment. You win, your debt is gone. Simple, right?”

“And if I lose?”

“Well, let’s just cross that bridge if we get there.”

* * *

  

All Castiel could see was darkness. Pure, rich darkness. Then a voice floated about him, though its source he could not pinpoint: “This one will do just fine. The vessel is inhabited but that is of no import. I sense great power within this one. The Darkness will devour him quite nicely.”

“Sam! Dean!” Castiel called, but his voice was lost in the nothingness.

Suddenly, the corporeal plane appeared below him. Dark stone walls rose around him. A figure stepped into the dimly lit space. “Shall we begin?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I think I forgot to mention this, and it's probably been inferred out by now, but in this universe, the Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters didn't exist on Sam and Dean's world.

Cid was a hard driver. Though he would give Dean the materials to build a ship and the knowledge to build it, Dean had to work for Cid for a little bit. Getting materials and accessories from the other Districts and sometimes battling Heartless to get certain items they stole.

Dean was getting more experience fighting Heartless with his knife since he’d run out of ammo for his gun a while ago. The knife was short and wasn’t exactly the best of weapons for Heartless, but he was making do. He had no munny to buy anything anyway and everything he would’ve earned working for Cid was heading towards his ship so he could find Sam.

It was on one of those supply runs that he met the mouse.

He spotted a bracelet that one of the Heartless had stolen, a fairly expensive one or so Dean was told, lying on the ground in the Second District. He had just snatched it up when something struck him from behind and he tumbled forward onto the ground. Heaving himself back up quickly, he came face to face with a huge fat Heartless. Its yellow eyes under its tin hat locked onto to him.

Dean drew his knife.

The Heartless in front of vanished into a pink heart floating up towards the sky. A little humanoid mouse wearing bright red pants, yellow shoes, and white gloves was in the Heartless’s place. In his hand was another Keyblade, Dean guessed, only instead of Sora’s plain silver key and gold handle style, this one was long and blue with stars on the key. The key’s teeth were curved with a star inside a crescent moon. Its handle was white and blue and almost looked like wings. At the top of the handle were two yellow stars with a blue star just below it. At the base of the handle was a bigger yellow star. On the keychain was another crescent moon.

“Thanks,” Dean said to the mouse. He couldn’t help thinking how his life just kept getting weirder and weirder.

“No problem,” the mouse replied in a higher pitched voice. “The name’s Mickey.”

“Dean. Is that a… Keyblade?”

The mouse looked rather surprised. “Yeah, it is. How did you know?”

“I met someone else with one of those too, except his wasn’t as fancy as yours,” Dean replied.

Mickey looked thoughtful for a moment, then his more serious expression faded. “You should be more careful. The Heartless are dangerous.”

“Yeah, I know. Again, thanks for saving my butt back there.”

Mickey suddenly frowned, raising his Keyblade. “Don’t thank me yet.”

Dean turned and his grip on the knife tightened. More Heartless were appearing, numerous numbers of the fat ones as well as other Heartless like the ones he saw on his world he learned were called Shadows and these other jittery humanoid ones with metal helmets on that he learned were called Soldiers. He stuffed the bracelet in the pocket of his jeans.

“Stay here,” Mickey told him before jumping into the fray. Dean had to admit that that mouse was acrobatic as hell and one great fighter, but no one ever told Dean Winchester to stay out of a fight. No one.

Dean plunged his knife into the nearest Shadows while Mickey jumped around, slaying Heartless like no tomorrow until it was just one fat Heartless left.

Mickey glanced back at Dean. “I thought I told you to stay out of it.”

“If you knew me, you would’ve known that there was no way I was letting that happen,” Dean replied.

Mickey jumped onto the fat Heartless and was about to deliver the killing blow when the fat Heartless swiped at Mickey and sent him tumbling. His Keyblade skittered away. Dean dropped his knife and lunged toward the Keyblade, knowing from experience that his knife was no good. He’d tried and it had just bounced off. His hand grasped the handle and he picked it up. It was surprisingly light and it felt pretty good in his hand.

He locked onto the big Heartless and jumped, striking the head and killing it, the little pink heart appearing and floating away.

Mickey was watching with wide eyes. He got up and walked toward Dean. “That was.. that was mighty impressive.”

“Thanks,” Dean replied. “Here’s your key back.”

Mickey took it from him and inspected it in his gloved hand.

“I didn’t damage it, did I?”

“No, no, it’s fine,” Mickey replied. He looked up at Dean and smiled. “Well, I have to go. Take care of yourself, ya hear?”

Dean nodded. “Will do. You too. Be careful out there.”

Then Mickey was gone. He took the bracelet out of his pocket and examined it. So much trouble for one little bracelet. Then he picked up his knife and returned to Cid.

 

* * *

 

Dean sat behind the controls of his new ship, a ship that Cid had called a Gummi ship. It was sleek, aerodynamic, and pitch black. Just like his Impala. Well, sorta. It reminded him of his Impala, but it wasn’t the same as his baby. He named the ship _Impala_ anyway, though. For her.

Cid had given him the basic lessons on how to fly her and told him not to go messing around in the affairs of other worlds, to which Dean had grinned and replied, “Who, me? Never.”

Now he was off after days on end working for Cid, a debt that he was still repaying by giving Cid any Gummis that he happened to find throughout his journey.

Heading out into the space between worlds, Dean realized that he was in over his head. He stopped at a place called Wonderland, this crazy mixed up world where things float and people drink potions to shrink and become big again. There wasn’t much for Dean to do there and the only thing he got from it all was that the Heartless were stealing people from their worlds. Someone named Alice had been kidnapped. That’s all the little white rabbit with a pocket watch would talk about. Alice this, Alice that, and how the Queen of Hearts would be royally pissed and want his head. Dean did some looking around anyway, but his comb of the forests and the little bizarre house turned up nothing. No Sam. Not even a hair.

Dean went back to _Impala_ and wandered around space for a little while more before stumbling upon another world much different than the one he’d just been to. He landed, finding himself in a huge courtyard with two large Greek statues of gladiators. A roar erupted from the other side of the doors across the courtyard, which Dean placed as the sound of a cheering crowd. He walked through the doors, finding an empty little room with a huge stone block in it and a couple of trophies on shelves. The cheering continued through a doorway straight ahead of him.

He was greeted with the bright light of the sun and a deafening crowd. They all chanted one name: “Sor-a! Sor-a! Sor-a!” In the arena, Dean spotted Sora, Donald, and Goofy duking it out with a bunch of Heartless. A little goat man stood on the sidelines yelling, “Get ‘em, kid! Give ‘em the old one-two!”

The Heartless disappeared in no time. The kid was getting stronger. After the match, Sora held up his Keyblade in victory. He spotted Dean at that moment and walked over to talk to him.

“So you find your brother yet?” he asked, still a little out of breath from his match.

Dean shook his head. “Not yet.”

“I’m sure he’ll turn up soon,” Sora replied. “Besides, with a brother like you, there’s no way he won’t be found.”

Dean scoffed, but he couldn’t help but appreciate Sora’s optimism. “You find your friends yet?”

“Not yet, but I’m still looking.”

“So what’cha doing here?”

Sora grinned. “Sharpening my skills. I’m gonna become a true hero.”

“Not if you keep dawdlin’, you won’t!” the goat man replied. “Your next match is in twenty minutes. Get ready.”

“Yikes, tough driver,” Dean told Sora after the old goat had gone.

“Who, Phil?” Sora laughed. “ He may seem pretty harsh, but he’s a real softie on the inside.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Dean replied, skeptical.

“Alright, well I gotta get ready for my next match. You gonna stick around?”

“Yeah, for a little bit.”

“Cool.”

“Sora, c’mon, Phil’s gettin’ antsy!” Goofy called.

“Alright, I’m coming!” Sora called back. He gave a grin at Dean. "See ya later.” Then he ran off, back into the room Dean had run out of.

Dean shook his head, unable to help a small smile creep over his face. He found a spot on the crowded bleachers and an announcement for the next match was made. He watched the next couple of rounds, some with Sora and a couple with a guy with a really long sword, a dark red cape, and a really dark aura about him. He heard whispers in the stands about a different fighter who was supposed to be really good, but if that fighter was supposed to be in the tournament, Dean didn’t see him.

It was nearing the end of the day that Dean finally got a glimpse of the notorious new fighter that was being gossiped about. He’d just finished congratulating Sora on his progress in the vestibule, the small space with trophies, when he’d gone out into the courtyard to get some air and maybe leave since Sam obviously wasn't here.

In the courtyard was a guy with gray skin and a blue flame on his head wearing a long black robe with a tall guy who....

"Sam?" The name flooded out of him.

The tall guy turned in surprise. "Dean!"

The flame guy's eyes widened. He snapped his fingers and some sort of black binding held Sam in his place. "Uh uh uh, not so fast Sammy-kins. You haven't upheld your end of the deal yet."

"Let me go! I never wanted to fight in your stupid Games anyway!" Sam replied.

"Let my brother go, bastard," Dean growled.

The flame guy frowned. "Is that any way to speak to a god?"

Dean's face furrowed into angry confusion. "You're a god?"

The guy appeared in a poof of black smoke in front of Dean. "Hades, Lord of the Underworld, pleased to make your acquaintance." He held out a bony hand, but Dean didn’t even glance at it. “Must be a family thing,” Hades muttered, pulling his hand back. “You must be Dean. Sam always talks about you, you know.”

Dean’s eyes never left Hades, but his words were directed at Sam. “You made a deal with this guy, Sam?” His hand slowly inched towards the sheath he used to store his knife.

“He forced me into it, said he was going to kill-” Some more of that black binding appeared as a gag over Sam’s mouth with another snap of Hades’s fingers.

Dean had the knife in his hand in an instant.

Hades just laughed. “Don’t you know not to bring a knife to a god fight?” Dean’s expression didn’t change. “Look, I was never going to kill your brother. I just needed him to think he had more at stake here. He’s going to kill Hercules if my other fighter can’t for some reason, then badda-bing-badda-boom, he’s free. No strings attached.”

“You’re as bad as the monsters back home,” Dean spat. “Now let him go.”

Hades froze for a moment, then he smiled. “Okay, okay, fine.” He turned to Sam. “You’re free to go.” The bindings disappeared. Then so did Hades in a puff of black smoke.

Sam and Dean embraced. “I’ve been looking for you all over, man,” said Dean.

“You found me,” replied Sam.

Dean backed off. “You wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen, what I’ve learned.”

“I think I can believe it, Dean. I’m in ancient Greece fighting hydras and these things called Heartless while working for the Lord of the Underworld.”

“That is true,” Dean conceded.

Suddenly barking erupted beyond the courtyard walls. It thundered throughout the area, shaking the brothers to the core.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Dean said. The brothers ran toward the vestibule. Inside, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Phil were there looking stressed and worried.

“What happened?” Dean asked.

“I was on my match with Cloud when I lost. He stood there for a moment with his sword pointed at me, and he was about to walk away when this big three headed dog appeared,” Sora explained.

“Cerberus, guard of the Underworld,” Phil cut in. "Hades let him out."

“And Cerberus knocked Cloud out and Hercules came running to save Cloud and fight off Cerberus and he told us to run, so we did, but Hercules is still in there with Cerberus,” Sora continued. “Alone. With an injured Cloud.”

“Well then, let’s go out there and help him,” Sam said, moving towards the door.

Phil planted himself firmly in Sam’s way. “Absolutely not. There’s no way any of you are going out there.” The goat man peered closely at Sam. “Hey, I know you. Aren’t you another fighter in the tournament?”

“This is my brother, Sam,” Dean said.

Sora smiled. “I told you that you’d find him.”

“I’m going in,” Sam said before pushing past Phil. Dean followed, telling Phil ‘sorry’ on the way out. There was no way he abandoning his brother.

“If they’re going, we’re going,” Sora told Phil as he and his friends went after the Winchesters.

Phil sighed. “Young people.”

The group went into the Coliseum with determination and at the sight of Cerberus, also a bit of fear. The Winchesters had most certainly never fought a beast the size of Cerberus who seemed to be about two and a half stories tall. Like Sora had said, it had three heads that shared one body. It had Hercules cornered with Cloud over his shoulder. When they entered, Cerberus’s ears pricked up and turned to look at the newcomers. Hercules forgotten, Cerberus faced the group as they all came closer to him.

“Hey, you giant oversized mutt, come get a piece of us!” Dean yelled.

All three of Cerberus’s red eyes narrowed. He growled menacingly. Donald and Goofy had out their wand and shield, respectively. Sora’s Keyblade appeared in a sheen of light in his hands. Even Sam had a weapon. It appeared in a column of darkness in his hand. It was a black iron blade that curved inward in two places on the blade on each side and ended in a point. Its silver crossguard had a red gemstone encrusted into the center of it.

Dean dumbly pulled out his knife.

Hercules ran past them with Cloud over his shoulder, running into the vestibule. Phil came out and yelled at them. “I’ve got two words of advice for you: attack!”

Cerberus made the first move, snapping mercilessly at them with three sets of huge sharp pearly white fangs. Sora held up his Keyblade and Goofy his shield to block while Donald just flat out got out of the way. A few feathers floated out of the space where Donald had been. Dean barely got out of the way in time himself. Sam had blocked the teeth with his blade and was now attempting to slash the mutt with all he had.

"Thunder!" Donald yelled, holding his wand up to the sky. A thunderbolt struck Cerberus, though Cerberus just shook himself off and continued snapping away.

Dean was between Cerberus's paws, trying to do some damage by slashing away with his small knife behind the dog's paws. However, it didn’t seem to be affecting the mutt much.

The huge dog reared up on his hind legs and then a few seconds later slammed him front paws down onto the ground, creating a huge shock wave that knocked everyone off of their feet. They had to quickly scramble back up as the dog started shooting fireballs, yes fireballs, at the group of fighters. Dean heard Donald’s cry of pain as one of them hit him before he could dodge or disperse it. The smell of burning feathers wafted through the air.

Sam yelled, “Blizzard!” and suddenly there were bits of frost and snowflakes shooting out of his blade at Cerberus. The dog let out a howl of pain and turned his furious gazes on Sam Winchester. Dean could only look on in horror as the dog gathered some sort of dark aura inside its mouth and then spewed it into the earth. Blackish purple spot of darkness appeared on the ground, headed straight for Sam, but he didn’t seem to notice. He was too busy readying another spell.

A black spot appeared below Sam’s feet and by the time the long-haired Winchester brother noticed, it was too late. The darkness had taken ahold of him and started going up his whole body. Sam crumpled to the ground, lifeless, though the dark spot had disappeared, darkness still ravaged his body.

Dean ran over to him, yelling, “Sam!” He was on his knees beside his brother. “Sam, Sam, wake up.” He held his brother in his arms, oblivious to the fight happening around him. Sora, Donald, and Goofy could take care of Cerberus. He just found his brother. He refused to lose him again.

“Dean, watch out!” Sora’s voice shook him from his moment of oblivion. Dean looked up, his eyes widening at the sight of a fireball headed straight towards him and Sam. It was too late to move. Acting on instinct, Dean covered his brother as much as he could with his own body, a hand held out in the hopes of partially blocking the fireball’s impact.

Something materialized in Dean’s hand right then, something light and metal. He could feel the heat of the fireball as it neared, pressure on the thing in his hand, and then the fireball and the heat was gone.

Dean looked up, amazement in his eyes. In his hand was a Keyblade. It was long with a sturdy grip. It was pure iron, sleek and black all over with a silver chain. The key’s teeth formed an image of a hand if one looked at the places where the teeth went inward. The hexagonal handle had bolts at each of the corners. At the end of the chain was a charm shaped like a white wing. He even knew its name. He didn’t know how, but he knew it. It was called Bravura.

Dean’s grip tightened on Bravura and he laid his unconscious brother back down and rose to his feet. He stepped over his brother and headed where Sora and his friends were keeping Cerberus busy.

“Sora, let’s finish this!” Dean yelled.

Sora nodded at him. They both ran up to Cerberus, Dean trying hard not to outrun Sora, and they delivered crushing blows to the top of the middle head with their Keyblades. Cerberus let out a pained whine and crashed to the ground, shaking the earth.

With Cerberus down, Dean dropped Bravura, which disappeared in a burst of light the moment it hit the ground, and ran over to Sam where he was still lying on the ground, shreds of darkness still eating at him.”Sam, Sam, please, come on.”

Sam let out a groan. “Dean.” His eyes flickered open for a few short moments before they shut again.

“What do I do?” Dean asked, looking up at Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

Donald bent down and placed a wing on Sam’s forehead. The duck lifted his wand. “Heal!” A few leaves appeared over Sam’s head along with some yellow sparkles floating down onto Sam, but Sam’s condition didn’t seem to change. He shook his head grimly. “I can’t do anything for him. It’s beyond my abilities.”

“Cid. Maybe Cid will know,” Dean muttered.

“Or Leon. Or Yuffie,” Goofy supplied.

“C’mon, we’ll help you carry him back to your ship,” Sora said, grabbing one of Sam’s arms. Dean took the other and they slowly lifted Sam up between them. They carried him like that through the vestibule, where Phil congratulated them, but he took one look at Sam and shut up. Then they went through the courtyard. They got Sam into _Impala_ , the last thing Dean heard from that world is the conversation that Sora was having with Hades’s other pawn.

“So why did you go along with him anyway?” Sora asked.

There was a pause. “I’m looking for someone. Hades promised to help. I tried to exploit the power of darkness, but it backfired. I fell into darkness and I couldn’t find the light.”

“You’ll find it,” Sora replied. Dean could only imagine the optimism that was in his eyes as he said it. “I’m searching too.”

“For your light?” Dean guessed that Sora nodded or something because then Cloud said, “Don’t lose sight if it.”

Dean glanced back at Sam as _Impala_ ’s door shut. There was no way he was going to lose Sam. Not this time.


	3. Chapter 3

Dean stumbled into Cid’s shop with Sam over his shoulder. “Please, help me,” were the first words out of his mouth. “I don’t know what to do.”

Cid took one look at Sam and said, “I know someone who might be able to help you.”

“Who?”

“There’s a door in the Third District in the back with a fire symbol on it. You wouldn’t happen to know magic, would you?” Cid asked.

Dean shook his head. “But I think Sam does.”

“You need to get him to cast Fire on the door so it’ll open. Then go to the cottage on the island and go inside. The man there should be able to help you.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

“You owe me plenty, son,” Cid muttered and watched the elder Winchester brother carry his little brother out of the shop.

It was difficult navigating through the Third District. The Heartless didn’t seem to care that he was trying to get his injured brother some help. All they seemed to care about was that Sam and Dean had hearts and they wanted them.

With Bravura reappearing in his hand, fighting Heartless was much easier than using his old knife. Even though Dean had to set Sam down while he took care of the Heartless, he still did, all while defending Sam, and it was that much easier. Getting Sam to safety and somewhere he could receive help was Dean’s number one priority and nothing was going to stand in his way, not even the stupid Heartless.

At the door, Dean tried to rouse Sam, trying to shake him awake. “Sam, Sam, listen to me. I need you to use that magic-y stuff and cast Fire on the door. It’s the only way I can get someone to help you. Please.”

Sam let out a strange vocal sound, something that was clearly not English. His arm slowly rose and a dark aura started appearing in his hand, slowly forming the blade he’d been using earlier. Sam mumbled something and a burst of flames came out of the blade at the door. Then Sam’s hand went limp and so did everything else, as if there was no more energy left in his body. His weapon disappeared the same way it came.

The door glowed and then opened. Inside it was dark, but Dean’s eyes quickly adjusted. He could see a body of water in front of him with stepping stones leading to a dark island with a hut built on it. “Son of a bitch,” Dean muttered, looking at the stepping stone nightmare. It would take him ages to get Sam over there, but he had no choice.

Dean got him over there after a good hour, putting Sam onto a stone in front of him before Dean would jump to that stone and start all over again. It was no easy task and Dean often found himself in the water more often than not, but it was better him than Sam. Sam would surely drown if he was dropped into the water and Dean didn’t know if he was strong enough to keep both Sam and himself alive if that happened.

Dean dragged Sam into the hut. An older gentleman looked up, wearing a blue robe, a tall pointed blue hat, with a long white beard that ended at the hem of his robe. “Oh my. What do we have here?”

“Please help him,” Dean begged.

“Come, let’s get him on the bed over there,” the man replied, helping Dean get Sam onto the little bed he had amongst his piles and piles of books. With Sam on the bed, the old man looked him over.

“Can you help him?” Dean asked.

“I believe so. It may take a while to get him up to his former self again though,” he replied.

“Do whatever you have to do.”

The man later introduced himself as Merlin the wizard. He had zoomed around, boiling potions and other concoctions in his hut and “hmm”ed a lot while he inspected Sam. Then he said, “Give him a few days or so. He’ll come around and then he’ll be all better. We should really let him sleep now.”

“Thank you,” Dean replied, letting out a relieved sigh.

“Now, may I ask how he got this way?”

Dean explained to Merlin about Cerberus and the Coliseum.

“And how did you come across that Keyblade of yours?”

Dean was startled into silence for a few moments. “How did you know?”

“I’m an old, old, wizard, Dean,” Merlin replied with a smile. “You don’t get to my age without knowing a few things.”

“I don’t know how I got it. It just… appeared in my hand.” Dean held out a hand and tried to conjure Bravura, but nothing came. “And now it’s gone.”

Merlin thought for a moment. “It sounds like it came in a time of need, so it’ll come again when you need it, in desperate cases unless you practice and learn to consciously conjure it. It’s no different than magic.”

Dean was silent for a moment. _Magic._

“Your brother will be fine. I would just like to watch him for a few days, if that’s alright with you. You’re free to go about your business though. I won’t keep you here.”

Dean nodded. “You’ll let me know if anything changes?”

“I’ll send Archimedes, my owl.”

A little owl stuck his head out of a birdhouse. “Who, who.”

Dean turned towards the exit of the little cottage. “Thanks, wizard man.”

The next day or so was spent with Dean helping out the townspeople with Heartless issues and retrieving more merchandise for Cid. He continued trying to conjure up Bravura, but no matter how hard he concentrated or how long he sat there staring at his empty hand, the Keyblade refused to appear. Merlin kept telling him to keep trying, but Dean was beginning to think it was a one-time thing, so he was back to his knife.

He visited Sam almost hourly, just to check up on him. The darkness covering him was slowly going away and the marks it left behind were slowly vanishing. Progress was good, though he wasn’t sure why Merlin always looked so… concerned whenever he was done with a healing session with Sam.

He was sitting in on one of those healing sessions when Sam’s sword appeared in his hand. Merlin stepped back.

Sam sat up quickly, somewhat conscious, sword raised. “Who are you? What’s going on?”

“Relax, Sammy, it’s okay,” Dean said, going over to Sam. “You were unconscious for a little while there, sick with something. Merlin here patched you up. We’re in Traverse Town now.”

“Traverse Town?”

“A different world.”

“That explains so much. I think Hades mentioned something about there being different worlds. It makes sense, now that I think about it. I guess he wasn't lying.” Sam put a hand on his head, his sword disappearing when he let go of it.

“Where did you get that sword?” Merlin asked, stroking his beard.

Sam hesitated. “It was... a gift. From Hades. So I could fight for him in the Coliseum.”

Dean was about to say something, but the moment passed when a voice from outside the cottage called, “Hey Merlin!” Everyone’s eyes traveled to the source to see Sora walking inside. “We got a book for you.” He stopped short at the sight of Sam and Dean. “Hey guys. Glad to see you’re up, Sam.” He turned to Merlin. “Cid said to give this to you.” Sora pulled out a plain white and brown book with golden lock on it.

“Ah, thank you, Sora. This is a very special book, you know.” Merlin flipped through the pages, frowning. “Hmmm, it seems that its pages have been scattered all around the worlds by those dastardly Heartless.”

“I’ll look for them,” Sora replied immediately.

“Why thank you. The King asked me to help you with magic, so if you need any help with that, don’t hesitate to ask.” Merlin looked back at the Winchesters. He stroked his long beard. “I think you two are free to go. You’ve both been here long enough. Sam, you should be good for more traveling, just try not to overexert yourself this time. And stay away from the darkness, too.”

“Will do, thanks for all your help, Merlin,” Sam said, heaving himself out of bed. His muscles were sore and he had a splitting headache, but otherwise he felt fine. Something heavy weighed him down in his chest, but that was normal for him.

The two groups left Merlin’s home and headed off to Cid’s, Sora to let Cid know that the book was delivered and Sam and Dean to let Cid know that Sam was okay and they were off. As they entered the Third District, more Heartless appeared, but before any of them could spring into action, someone else took them out. It was a boy wearing a yellow muscle shirt with a black X at the top and baggy blue pants. He had unnaturally silver hair and sharp blue eyes. In his hand was a red and blue blade in what seemed to be the shape of a bat wing.

He gave Sora a sly smile. “There you are. What’s going on?”

Sora slowly walked towards Riku, hands reaching to his face. “Riku!” Sora pulled Riku’s mouth and face in opposite directions, as though he was making sure that the sight before him wasn’t a dream.

Riku pushed him away. “Hey, hey, cut it out.”

“I’m not dreaming this time, right?” Sora’s eyes traveled up and down his friend.

Riku ran his fingers through his hair, humor behind his next words. “I certainly hope not. Took forever to find you.”

“Wait a second, where’s Kairi?” Sora asked.

“Isn’t she with you?”

Sora frowned and lowered his head, shaking it slightly.

Riku started walking away. “Well, don’t worry, I’m sure she made it off the island too.” He stopped and looked up at the sky, arms spread, back still to Sora. “We’re finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now. We’ll be together again soon. Don’t worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this-”

A Heartless shadow appeared behind Riku, and as quick as lightning, Sora had his Keyblade in his hand, the shadow vanquished. Riku turned around, startled. Sora straightened up, hoisting the Keyblade onto his shoulder and giving his friend a smug look. “Leave it to who?”

Riku stepped toward the Keyblade wielder. “Sora, what did you-”

“I’ve been looking for you and Kairi too, with their help.” He gestured toward Donald, Goofy, Sam, and Dean. Donald and Goofy nodded, while Sam and Dean gave small awkward waves.

“Who are they?”

Donald cleared his throat. “Ahem, my name is-”

Sora cut him off, a strange wistfulness or urgency creeping into his voice. “We’ve visited so many places and worlds, looking for you.”

“Really?” Riku mused. “Well, what do you know? I never would have guessed.”

Goofy came up behind Sora, placing his hands on his shoulders. “Oh, and guess what? Sora’s the Keyblade master.”

“Who would’ve thought it?” Donald quacked.

Sora turned to glare at Donald.  “What’s that mean?!”

“So this is called a Keyblade?” When Sora looked back at his friend, Riku had the Keyblade in his hand, examining it with his calculating blue eyes.

Sora looked at his empty hand. “Huh? Hey, give it back.”

“Catch.” Riku tossed it back to him.

When the Keyblade was safely back in his hands, Sora said, “So you’re coming with us, right? We’ve got this awesome rocket, just wait ‘til you see it!”

Donald’s eyebrows furrowed. “No, he can’t come!”

Sora’s head snapped to view Donald. “What?”

“Forget it,” Donald replied, hands on his hips.

“Oh come on, he’s my friend!”

Donald gestured to Sam and Dean, who were just standing there silently and awkwardly. “And so are they, but they’re not coming with us!”

“Guys, he’s gone,” Goofy stated, dumbfounded.

“Riku?” Sora looked around for his friend, but his eyes were unable to find him. “Riku!” He looked back at Donald, sadness in his his eyes. “Nice going,” he muttered. He sighed, but then stretched out, looking back at the gang. “Oh well, at least he’s okay. And who knows? Maybe we’ll run into Kiari soon, too.”

“He’s quite optimistic, isn’t he?” Sam said to Dean in a low voice.

Dean chuckled. “Yeah, it’s damn annoying sometimes, but I gotta give him credit.” In a louder voice, Dean said to Sora, “So I’m guessing that was one of your friends you were looking for?”

Sora nodded. “One down, one to go. C’mon, let’s go see Cid.”

On the way back to the First District, they noticed a light on in one of the houses in the Third District. Peeking inside, the group found Cid, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie inside. Sam and Dean listened as the four told a tale of woe, about a sorceress named Maleficent and her path of destruction. How Maleficent destroyed their world and brought the Heartless with her. How they all ended up here in Traverse Town. How, rumor had it, that she was in town.

“Bitch,” Dean muttered. His anger had started to build, knowing now the reason the Heartless were here, and this Maleficent was quite possibly why Dean had lost Sam, had no idea where Bobby was, and the world he sought so hard to save from being destroyed was now just that.

“So you delivered the book? Your navigation gummi is ready,” Cid told Sora in a change of pace. He looked over at Dean. “I took the liberty of installing one in the _Impala_ too. I threw in a warp gummi on both for the heck of it.”

“Thanks,” Dean replied.

“Yeah, sure, kids,” Cid said. “You find another one, you bring it to me.”

Outside, there was a tolling of a bell. Everyone froze. It rang three times and then stopped.

Aerith frowned. “I’ve been thinking about the bell in the Second District.”

“That one that just rang?” Sora asked.

“The one above the gizmo shop,” Yuffie cut it. “There’s a legend about it, you know.”

“But it’s all boarded up. Nobody can get in there,” Aerith told Yuffie.

Cid shrugged. “Heck, go check it out. Ring it three times to see if anything happens.”

Goofy shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt.”

Sora looked expectantly at the Winchester brothers. “Are you guys coming?”

Sam looked at Dean for a moment, some sort of silent communication going between the two of them. When Sam looked back at Sora, Dean had crossed his arms in bitter resentment while Sam nodded. “We’ll go.”

They all headed into the Second District, Heartless popping up around them like daisies. The Heartless didn’t stand a chance. Their little pink hearts were floating up into the heavens in no time flat.

Soon enough, they were standing in front of the mysterious bell. It was located in one of the highest places in the Second District, on top of the roof of the abandoned gizmo shop which was now crawling with Heartless.

Goofy had frowned at the sight of the bell, whose belfry was boarded up and blocked by crates. “Well that ain’t right. If it was all boarded up, then how’d it ring?” He scratched his head in confusion.

Donald shrugged. “Let’s see if we can get those boards off.” He pulled at the edge of a board, his attempts in vain as he wasn’t strong enough.

“I think I have an idea,” Sora said. “Donald, Goofy, ready?”

The two got closer to Sora and faced the boarded up belfry.

“Uh, guys, what are you doing?” Dean questioned, folding his arms across his chest.

“We got this, don’t worry,” Sora replied. “Okay, go!” The three friends ran straight into the boards, splintering them in the middle with their weights. Sam and Dean rushed over to them to see if they were okay. The three were in a pile on the floor. The Winchesters could practically see stars floating above their heads. “See, we had it,” Sora said groggily.

Dean shook his head. “You’ll be feeling that tomorrow.”

“I’m feeling it now,” Donald groaned.

Sam entered the small belfry and looked up into the bell’s mouth. “It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here in a long time,” Sam said, noting the dust everywhere, and his own footstep pattern in the dust.

Sora joined him in the belfry. “Well, I guess we ring it now.” Both hands wrapped around the old and fraying rope, and he pulled down with all his might. A clear ring sounded throughout the abandoned district, echoing off the walls of empty buildings.

Down in the courtyard fountain, the  red mosaic tile artwork turned, revealing a new blue one. Dean, Donald, and Goofy watched the transformation with fixated eyes as the fountain began to glow and the water soared, After the second ring, it turned into two blue trees. The final ring had water spraying into the sky as lights flared and the tile turned one last time, from blue trees to warm butterflies on a pinkish background. Appearing on the mosaic artwork, glittering in a mystic blue, was a keyhole. Then silence reigned in the Second District, not even the water flowing anymore.

“This can’t be good,” Donald muttered. Dean could only nod his agreement as his heart started pumping in the anticipation of a fight.

Sam and Sora came out of the belfry, the change in mood in the air palpable. “Look, a Keyhole!” Sora grinned. “It’s time to seal it, I guess.”

“We have to,” Goofy replied, “or the Heartless will devour the world.”

“Is everyone ready?” Sam asked. The group gave him determined nods. His eyes lingered on Dean, who gave him a steely grin. This was just like a hunt. They would take out whatever was guarding this Keyhole thing and that would be the end of it. Another world would not be devoured on their watch.

The group headed down into the main courtyard, ready for whatever they would find down there. It was a cautious walk, one of sheer unbridled anticipation. And they were right to be cautious.

As they approached and almost neared it, the ground shook and metal armor came from the sky, blocking their path. The head of the empty tin can looked straight at them. Dean knew this one, had seen it before, when he first ran into Sora and the gang. Now it had come for revenge.

But then it did something unexpected: it rearranged its entire body. Its torso flipped itself upside down. Hands switched places with feet and the face guard dropped down to reveal beady yellow eyes glaring at the fighters. It floated above the ground, limbs flying around the Heartless’s torso.

“This bastard again,” Dean muttered.

“Guard Armor, round two,” Sora replied, Keyblade appearing in a flash of light in his hands. He rushed at the Guard Armor -which Dean assumed was the giant metal Heartless in front of them- with Donald and Goofy trailing behind him. Sam rushed past Dean, his dark sword glittering in his hand. The battle had begun and Dean was still trying to conjure that damn Keyblade of his. He stared lamely at the knife in his hand.

“Dean, watch out!” Sam’s voice yelled.

Dean looked up just in time to see a metal arm smack him in the face. He was thrown back, hitting the ground hard. Now his heart was pounding. The hunter got to his feet, just barely escaping another blow. He tightened his grip on his knife. If Bravura wouldn’t appear for him willingly, then he would _make_ her appear.

Dean threw himself into the battle, practically on the verge of recklessness. He found himself getting banged up more than usual from flying pieces of metal. Everyone else was beat up too, in fact Dean could see Donald using a healing spell on Sora. Sam was casting spells left and right with Goofy just trying to stand his ground.

Dean took a flying leap, grabbing onto part of the armor that stuck out and slashing. He could hear Sam’s voice yelling at him, but Dean had no idea what was being said; he wasn’t listening. The torso Dean had grabbed onto spun around and around, until Dean was sent flying again, this time hitting a wall and slumping to the ground. Dean’s breath escaped him, like a vacuum sucking the air out of his lungs. He was left dizzy, black spots covering his vision, threatening a black out. He could see the Guard Armor’s spinning torso of death coming towards him, the other limbs keeping his comrades busy.

Something appeared in his hand and his fingers wrapped around in with the strength Dean had left. Donald’s voice cried out, “Dean!” and suddenly he felt better, stronger. He pushed himself up off the wall, Bravura outstretched in his hand. The blade satisfyingly slashed across the Guard Armor’s torso. Dean grinned and helped Sam take out the arm that was giving the Winchester some trouble.

One by one, the limbs disappeared and the torso was the only thing left. Though the Guard Armor started shooting a laser cannon at them, Sora finished it off with a boost from Sam and Dean, allowing the boy to get the height needed to slice its head. The pink heart of the former Heartless once again floated into the heavens.

Instantly, Sam turned to Dean. “You idiot, what were you thinking?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You, that’s what. You were completely reckless out there, Dean. You almost got yourself killed.”

“Well, I didn’t get killed. And you can blame this stupid thing” -Dean held up Bravura to clarify- “for not coming when I call.”

“That’s not the point, Dean.”

“Would you rather have me fight with this or my knife? Because I can tell you that if I used my knife, I definitely wouldn’t have survived.”

“What about your gun?”

“No bullets.”

Sam fished through his pockets, pulled out some ammo, and held them out to Dean. “Here. Use these until you figure out how to get that thing when you need it. You can’t be reckless. That’s not an option. It never was.”

Dean took the ammo without a word, sliding it into a pocket. He watched as Sora pointed the Keyblade at the Keyhole. A beam of light appeared from the tip of the blade to the Keyhole, which produced a clicking sound, like something being locked. The Keyhole filled with light and then disappeared.

Donald and Goofy grinned and cheered. “Another world locked!” Goofy announced.

“What was that?” Sam asked.

Sora looked at his Keyblade. “Oh, uh, well, I locked this world. That’s what the Keyhole was. So the Heartless can’t get to the heart of a world like they did mine.”

“Is that what happened to me and Sam’s world?”

Sora nodded. “The world wasn’t sealed, so the Heartless got to it and devoured it. I’ve been going around locking worlds so that no one else has to lose their world.”

“That’s a lot of work for three people,” Sam said.

“Someone’s gotta do it,” Sora replied. “I have Donald and Goofy, and with them by my side, I know we can help a lot of people and save a lot of worlds.”

“Then make that five,” Dean said. “We can save more people and more worlds together.”

“Are you sure?” Donald asked, his doubt obvious in his voice.

“My brother and I did this all the time on our world.” Sam scratched his head. “Well, minus the world traveling, but we went all over our world to help people. It’d just be another day for us.”

Sora nodded, determination and hope in his eyes. “We’ll do it together.”


	4. Chapter 4

The two Gummi ships, _Impala_ and _Highwind_ , traveled alongside each other as they took out approaching Heartless ships. They kept an open comm link between them, just in case they encountered trouble, and also so the brothers could learn more about their newly expanded world.

“So wait, you guys are looking for your king?” Sam asked.

“Uh-huh, that’s right,” Goofy replied over the comm link. “He went out looking for why the stars were goin’ out.”

“And he told us to find the one with the key!” Donald cut in.

“So that’s why you’re with Sora,” Sam said slowly.

“Uh-huh,” said Goofy. “We have to find the King with Sora. Since that’s gonna stop the disaster the King was talkin’ about.”

“Guys, look!” Sora’s excited voice came over the intercom, “I think we’re there!”

In front of the two Gummi ships was a desert world floating in front of them. As they got closer and entered the world’s atmosphere, they could see a desert city coming into view and a big palace at the edge of it.

“Dude, looks like something out of Arabian Nights,” Dean commented as he landed _Impala_ behind a dune near the front gates of the city. Donald and Goofy’s _Highwind_ landed a few yards away.

“This place does really seem like it could’ve come from our world, somewhere in the Middle East,” Sam replied. He got up and opened the door, squinting in the bright sunlight. Dean followed him out.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were already out and looking up at the giant wall that protected the city. “Well, we’re here, guys,” Sora said.

“Let’s go check it out.” Donald started walking towards the entrance to the city.

There was an arch doorway that led into the city, that fed into a small marketplace. The place was deserted, windows closed and completely vacant everywhere the group looked.

“This can’t be normal,” Dean said, his voice echoing off the walls.

Before them, Heartless appeared. They wore golden vests, dark pointed shoes, and white turbans around their heads that only showed their beady yellow eyes. Each one had a long, broad scimitar in their dark hands. They reminded Dean of desert bandits.

Weapons instantly came out and within a few minutes, all of the Heartless had disappeared and released their pink hearts.

“Now we know why there’s no one here,” Sora said. The others nodded grimly in agreement and continued on into the heart of the city. There were a few different ways to go, but most, if not all, had been barricaded by barrels, crates, and pieces of wood.

“Do you think the citizens did this?” Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. “Either that or someone really doesn’t want anyone going anywhere.”

“Guys, did you hear that?” Sora asked, looking down an alleyway.

“Hear what?” Donald replied.

“Shhhhh.” Sora ran down the alleyway, his friends at his heels. It was a confined space to be sure, with not much else place to go. His eyes caught sight of something bright and blue.

“Hello? Who's there?” An almond-skinned girl peeked out from behind a pile of crates.

“We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help,” said Sam.

Dean lifted his eyebrows as the girl stepped out from behind the crates. She wore a bright blue outfit that showed her midriff, gold earrings with a gold necklace, and what seemed to be a headband with a blue crystal gem in the center. Her dark hair reached the small of her back. “Hi. I’m Dean. This is my brother, Sam. And these are some friends of mine, Sora, Donald, and Goofy.”

She smiled at him. “I’m Jasmine. My father is the sultan of Agrabah.”

Goofy scratched his head. “Uhhh…. so that makes you a princess.”

Jasmine nodded, but her face held a frown. “But he has been deposed by Jafar, who now controls the city.”

“Jafar?” Dean asked. “That’s a funny name.”

Jasmine blinked with confusion, placing a hand on her hip. “You haven’t heard of him? he’s the royal vizier. He’s gained evil powers and seized Agrabah. He’s desperately looking for something- something he calls the ‘Keyhole.’ Jafar caught me trying to escape, but he helped me.”

“Who helped you?” Sora questioned.

“We were hiding nearby, but he left a while ago to take care of something…” she trailed off, her face worried. “Oh, I hope Aladdin’s all right.

From the ledge right in front of the group, a snakey voice said, “Aladdin? Where might I find this street rat?”

The entire group looked up to see a tall man dressed in head to toe in red and black robes, with a twisty dark beard, and a golden python scepter with glaring ruby eyes. He had a long face and narrow eyes. He wore a poofy black hat with a red feather and a cape trailed him wherever he went. “Jasmine, allow me to find you more suitable company, my dear princess. These little rats won’t do, you see.”

“Jasmine, run,” Dean ordered, his voice calm but firm.

She nodded and ran out of the alley, not even looking back. Everyone pulled out their weapons. Donald’s wand, Goofy’s shield, Sam’s sword, Sora’s Keyblade, and Dean’s gun all looked battle-ready.

Jafar gave them a sly smile. “Ah, the boy who holds the key.” Heartless appeared around Jafar. They danced and leered at the self-appointed guardians below, awaiting their orders. Jafar gave barest flick of his wrist and the Heartless were upon them.

There was no time to stop Jafar as he idly walked away, in pursuit of Jasmine, no doubt. They could only fight off Heartless after Heartless in hopes that they could soon be on their way to helping Jasmine escape the evil man’s clutches.

Finally, the Heartless were gone. And so was Jafar and Jasmine.

“Guess we’ll have to search this town top to bottom, huh?” Sam sighed, his eyes darting over the city walls.

“Maybe we should try to find this Aladdin guy,” Sora suggested.

“Either way, we have to search this city,” Dean pointed out.

The group split up into two groups: Sora, Donald, and Goofy as one and the Winchester brothers as the other. The group would meet up in an hour by the front gate to compare notes. The search was slow. There were so many locked doors and hidden passageways that it was difficult to really search everywhere, even with two groups. Not to mention there were Heartless at every turn that slowed their search down.

“Do you think we’ll find something?” Dean asked.

Sam shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. I think someone will find something.”

“Something like this pole?”

Sam looked over at what Dean was referencing to. Carved into the wall was a doorway with a pole in it. There was nothing else there besides the pole. When Sam looked up, he could see only darkness. “It reminds me of a fireman’s pole.”

“Should we check it out?”

Instinctively, Sam knew they shouldn’t. Who knew what they’d find up there. Bandits lying in wait? Deadly snakes? Jafar waiting for them? Logically, however, the city needed to be searched top to bottom and this was one top that hadn’t been explored. “It can’t hurt,” Sam conceded. He took hold of the pole and began to heave himself up, slowly inching up the passageway. Dean was right behind him.

At the top of the pole was a room. It was meager and only held a few items, none of them valuable, but it held a lovely view of the palace. A purple and gold rug suddenly walked up to them, using its little tassels on its corners as feet. Sam and Dean, despite their encounters with the supernatural all the time, jumped. An animated carpet was something new. It danced in front of them, then floated into the air and out the window toward the desert.

“Did I have too much alcohol this morning, Sammy?”

“I saw it too, Dean. I saw it too.”

“Should we follow it? It seemed like it was doing that dance to get us to follow it.”

“I guess so.”

Sam and Dean met up with the others in the next twenty minutes. They shared their findings with the group.

“A magic carpet? Cool!” Sora said, grinning.

Donald crossed his arms and tapped a foot. “Are you sure it’s not the heat playing tricks on you?”

“Whether you guys come or not, my brother and I are going into the desert. That carpet seemed like it meant business,” Dean said.

“We’re coming,” Sora declared, ignoring Donald's unhappy quacks.

Out in the desert, just beyond Agrabah’s border walls, was the purple carpet waiting for them. It flew around them in delight that they’d come and then it lay itself down in front of them.

“I think we’re supposed to get on,” Goofy said, placing two feet onto the carpet.

It was a really tight squeeze, but they figured out a way to fit all of them on the mysterious carpet. The carpet seemed to lift them up okay and then they were on their way, zooming through the desert to an unknown destination.

The carpet touched down in front of a patch of sand where a young man and a monkey were trying to claw their way out of certain doom from the shifty sand that was trying to drag them under. “Help!” the man cried out.

“We’re coming!” Sora yelled. He started towards the drowning pair, but Heartless popped up out of the sinking sands all around the group.

“You take care of the Heartless, we’ll get them,” Sam ordered the trio of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Sam and Dean went over to the two in trouble. “Are you okay?”

“Does it look like we’re okay?” the man shot back.

Dean got down on his hands and knees, then extended a hand out. “Take my hand.”

The man reached out to him, his fingers barely grazing Dean’s hand. Carefully, Dean inched closer to the unstable sands. “Try again.” This time, the man had a stable grip on Dean’s hand and Dean could attempt to pull. “Sam, help me out here!” Sam followed Dean’s lead and extended a hand out. With two people pulling, they were finally able to pull the young man out.

“Thanks,” he said when he was safely on the ground. He got to his feet and looked at the monkey that was still trapped. It spoke to him in harsh tone. “I’m coming, Abu.” Then he carefully moved closer to Abu and onto the unstable sands where he plucked the little monkey out like he was picking flowers. The monkey perched on his shoulder as the young man made his way to safety.

“We’re still surrounded,” Sora called out to the Winchesters. “They just keep coming!”

The young man looked around, then pulled out what looked to be a little golden lamp. He rubbed the side of it then held up up to the sky, yelling, “Genie, get rid of these guys!”

Pink and blue smoke swirled up out of the lamp’s nozzle. A blue humanoid figure with a twisty beard rose up out of the smoke wearing two golden armbands and earrings. “Yahhhhhh! Wish number one, coming right up!” The genie snapped his fingers and more pink swirls shot out of his finger snap. The Heartless that surrounded them all disappeared, leaving those pink swirls in their wake.

Sam and Dean looked around in amazement. Sora did the same. “That was incredible,” Sora gaped.

“Come on, let’s get somewhere safe so we can talk,” the young man said.

“I see… Thanks, Sora. Sam, Dean,” said the young man, who had introduced himself as Aladdin. He was tall and had poofy black hair and sun tanned skin. He wore baggy white pants with a red waistband and a purple vest that exposed most of his chest. A red fez was placed on his head.

“Aladdin, what’re you doing out here?” Sora asked curiously.

He smirked. “Same old stuff. Hunting legendary treasure. Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders. I found that magic carpet and this lamp.” He took out the golden lamp to show them, the same one that he had held up before during the battle with the Heartless. “Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon the-”

“Please kid, leave the intros to a professional,” the blue genie cut Aladdin off. “The one and only Genie of the lamp! Rub-a-dub-dub the lamp and have your dearest wishes granted. Today’s winner is… Aladdin!” He held his large blue hand in a ta-da gesture over Aladdin as confetti magically appeared to shower him. “Congratulations!” he said as he enthusiastically shook Aladdin’s hand, a big grin on his face.

“This doesn’t seem like our type of genie,” Dean muttered to his brother.

“No, he doesn’t. He actually seems… nice.”

“Weird.”

Donald was looking at Genie with wide eyes. “Any wish?”

The genie waved a hand in Donald’s face. “Patience, my fine, feathered friend. Any three wishes!” One Genie was now three Genies, all holding up three fingers. “A one wish,” -a Genie disappeared- “a two wish,” -another Genie disappeared- “a three wish. Then I make like a banana and split” The final Genie disappeared. He reappeared next to Sora. “Our lucky winner made his first wish, and let me tell you what a doozy that wish was.” So he has two left!” he said as he split himself into two again. They both disappeared and Genie’s disembodied voice asked, “So Master, what’ll you have for wish number two?” He reappeared near Aladdin with a microphone as a spotlight shone over Aladdin.

“Hmm, how about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?” Aladdin said.

“Ooooh! Money! Royalty! Fame! Why didn’t I think of that? Okay, you asked for it, a hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold! Just say the word and I’ll deliver it in thirty minutes or less, or your meal’s free!” He put an arm around Aladdin. “Hey, I’ll even throw in a cappuccino.”

“No, thanks,” Aladdin said, holding his hands up. “I think I’ll put that on hold until we reach Agrabah.”

“Uh, why a prince?” Goofy asked.

A wistful look came over Aladdin’s face, one that Dean knew very well from watching his brother Sam. Dean crossed his arms. He knew where this was headed.

“You see, there’s this girl in Agrabah named Jasmine.” His face fell. “But she’s a princess, and I’m…” He hung his head. “Aw, she could never fall for a guy like me.”

“Oh. Princess?” Donald said, thinking.

“Jasmine?” Goofy said.

A lightbulb lit up in Sora’s mind as he put the names together. “Oh, that’s right! She’s in trouble, Aladdin!”

“What? Well, c’mon, let’s get going!”

As they made their way to Agrabah, Genie told them what life was like living as a Genie. “Phenomenal cosmic power. Itty-bitty living space.”

“Say, Genie, what if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you say?”

Hope crept into every crevice of Genie’s voice. “You’d do that?”

“Genie, it’s a promise. After we help Jasmine.”

The group convened at Aladdin’s place, which was where Sam and Dean found the carpet.

“So Jafar is after Jasmine and this ‘Keyhole,’” Aladdin said, musing about the information. He stared out at the view of Agrabah, eyes focused on the palace.

Genie scratched at his chin. “Keyhole, eh? I could swear I’ve heard about that somewhere before…”

Donald perked up. “Really? Where?”

“Now where was it? It’s only been 200 years…”

Sora turned to Aladdin. “Well, anyway, we’ve got to stop Jafar before it’s too late.”

“So where do we start?” Dean asked.

Aladdin pointed to the palace. “If Jafar is going to be anywhere, it’ll be there.”

“And Jasmine?” Sam asked.

“Hopefully she’s somewhere safe, but taking out Jafar will ensure her safety.”

 **  
** The group made their way through Agrabah and found themselves at the palace gates. They were on a ledge looking down at the little area before the palace gates. Below was Jafar, Jasmine and…

“Cas?” Dean gasped.

As if he heard his name, Castiel looked up at them. He seemed... different. He looked different. Huge black wings sprouted from his back, seeming to be made from the same darkness that had almost consumed Sam at the Olympus Coliseum, the same darkness that the Heartless were made of.

The group dropped down to the ground.

Jafar looked boredly over at them. “Setting your sights a little high, aren’t you, boy?”

“Cas!” Dean cried out. “Cas, what are you doing here? What’s going on?

Castiel’s sharp blue eyes met Dean’s green one. He didn’t say a word.

“Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess any more,” Jafar continued.

“Jasmine!” Aladdin yelled.

The princess looked at him with pained eyes as Jafar stopped her movement with an arm barring her way. “I’m so sorry, Aladdin.”

Dean’s eyes caught a golden glint from behind Aladdin. Aladdin was rubbing the lamp furiously, trying to get Genie’s attention while muttering something under his breath.

Jafar turned around in surprise as he saw Jasmine being carried away by Genie.

“One wish left! You’re making this really easy, you know,” Genie said with a grin.

Jafar laughed. “So sorry, boy. I’m afraid your second wish has been denied.”

A red parrot flew across the clearing with Genie’s lamp in his little orange claws and delivered it into Jafar’s greedy hands.

Aladdin looked at his hands in surprise.

Genie slowly let Jasmine down, his form slowly disappearing into thin air. “I’m sorry, Al.”

Castiel pushed a pot in the path of Jasmine’s fall, her body entering the pot with a plunk. The pot sprouted spider legs as Jafar said, “And now, I bid you all farewell! Attack!” Jafar slowly faded away. Castiel looked at the Winchesters one last time before the flapping of wings was heard and he was gone.

It was just the Winchesters, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin facing a room full of pots with spider legs. From one of the pots, Jasmine’s voice called, “Please, help me!”

The pots worked together to create a giant pot centipede with a blue head and tail that snapped at them with pincers and tried to poison them with poisonous pools that appeared on the ground.

“Jasmine!” Aladdin called out periodically. Towards the beginning, he got a reply, but soon, her voice was nowhere to be heard and she never appeared no matter how many pots they smashed.

Sam brought down his sword, Archfiend, on the centipede’s tail one last time, which ended the battle. The group stopped to take a breath for a moment, all in low spirits.

“Who was the guy in the trench coat?” Sora asked.

“A friend of ours,” Sam explained.

“That’s not Cas,” Dean said.

“You saw him too, Dean. Of course it was.”

“That’s not Cas. It may look like him, but it’s not him.”

Aladdin ran a hand through his hair in frustration, sword still out. “Jasmine!” He looked around as Jafar’s shrill laugh echoed off Agrabah’s walls. “To the desert! C’mon, let’s move!”

 

 

Aladdin led them back to where he was trapped in the sand. “This is where Jafar must have been heading.”

“There’s nothing here,” Sam said.

“Or is there?” Aladdin replied with a smirk.

The ground suddenly shook and out of the ground rose a huge tiger’s head made out of sand. It locked its glowing yellow eyes onto the group. “Who disturbs my slumber?”

“It is I, Aladdin and company.”

“Hmmmm, proceed.” The jaws of the tiger opened to reveal a hardened sand staircase leading down the tiger’s throat.

“This is all kinds of messed up,” Dean muttered to Sam.

They all stepped inside and walked down the staircase. Passageways abound waited for them there, and after wandering its many halls and discovering its many secrets, they made it to the treasure room, where the lamp once resided. Now there was another doorway, and if Aladdin was right, Jafar was already inside.

“Is everyone ready?” Sam asked. There were nods around the group, and so they went inside.

As they ran into the chamber, they saw Jafar with an unconscious Jasmine at his feet and a woman with a green tinge to her skin. She wore black robes and a black cape. A wrapping around her head gave her the illusion of horns. She held what seemed to be a wooden staff with a spherical green gem at the very top. Her attention, along with Jafar’s, turned to the gang as they entered the chamber.

Sora’s eyes locked onto the woman. “Wait a second. Are you Maleficent?”

The woman said nothing. Instead, she just faded into nothingness, leaving them in Jafar’s hands, while also revealing the world’s Keyhole on the wall behind where the woman was standing.

“Jafar, let Jasmine go!” Aladdin demanded.

“Not a chance,” scoffed Jafar. “You see, she’s a princess- one of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door.”

“Open?” Goofy said.

“The door?” Donald asked.

“What door?” Dean questioned.

“But you fools won’t live to see what lies beyond it,” Jafar stated. He turned to Genie, who was floating limply in the air. “Genie, my second wish. Crush them!”

“Genie, no!” Aladdin protested.

Genie sadly looked at them. “I’m sorry, Al. The one with the lamp calls the shots. I don’t have a choice.”

Jafar’s python staff lit up briefly as a barrier was put up to block the Keyhole, Jasmine, and the chamber’s exit. “Let’s see how you deal with me, street rat!” He started mumbling under his breath. The python’s gem eyes glowed again and a fireball came straight at the gang. They sprung out of the way in all different directions.

Genie shut his eyes. “I’m  really sorry about this!” he said as he blasted icy air at Donald and Goofy. They got out just in time.

Jafar held out his python staff. “Take that!” A laser shot out at Dean, who barely dodged in time, which then made its way across the chamber floor towards Aladdin. Though he rolled out of the way, Aladdin’s leg got caught in the beam and he limped away, leg burning from the seared skin.

Sam brought his sword down on Jafar from behind, causing the sorcerer to spiral out of the air where Sora was able to land more hits.

“Get back!” Jafar yelled as he spread his arms wide. A red force field of electricity sent Sora reeling back into the dust.

Dean pulled out his gun. “Hey, Twisty, come get a piece of me, you stupid palace dog!”

Jafar turned on the elder Winchester with fury. “You dare speak to me that way? I, the vizier all-powerful!” He held out his python staff. “I shall show you, boy!”

“Not if they show you first!” Dean replied.

“What?” Jafar turned, just catching the sight of Sam and Sora both bringing down their weapons on him. The vizier twitched as pink sparks flew all over his body. He writhed in pain in the air, even as Sam and Sora landed safely on the ground. He fell onto the dust and lay there.

Aladdin got to his feet, injuries forgotten, and ran over to where Jasmine was, climbing onto the ledge. Sora and the Winchesters followed suit, but just as they got there, Jafar’s voice from behind echoed through the chamber.

“Genie! My final wish!” He was floating in the air again, Genie’s golden lamp held out in front of him. “I want you to make me an all-powerful Genie!”

Genie covered his eyes, but nonetheless, performed his magic and granted the wish.

Jafar glowed with power. The room shook. The floor fell away, leading into a fiery lava cavern that Jafar descended into as he transformed into the genie that he’d desired to become.

Sora looked down into the cavern, then back at the Keyhole.

“The magic’s still there,” Donald said. “We have to beat Jafar first.”

Sora nodded, then jumped into the abyss. He was quickly followed by Donald and Goofy. Even Aladdin jumped in after them. Sam and Dean were about to follow when the flapping of wings caught their attention. They both turned to see Castiel’s back standing above Jasmine’s unconscious body.

“Cas!” Dean said again, moving toward the angel.

Cas looked over his shoulder at them. “Don’t move or I will destroy this cavern.” Dean froze. Cas turned to face the Winchesters.

“Cas, what’s going on?” Sam demanded.

“Did you know that the angels thought that your Earth was the only world out there? That not even we were allowed to know about the many He created?” Cas said. “I bet we haven’t seen Him because he’s out there making new worlds, while the ones he created are left to rot.”

“Cas, this isn’t you,” Dean said, holding his hands up ever so slowly in an attempt to put the angel at ease.

Cas flared out his dark wings. “This is me, Dean. I am better now. I see the truth. Our Father will come back to us. We must get his attention.” He gestured towards Jasmine. “This will get his attention.”

“Don’t touch her!” Sam said.

“I don’t need to,” Castiel replied. There was more flapping of wings and both he and Jasmine were gone.

“Dammit,” Dean muttered.

“Come on, we have to try to follow him. Maybe we can still get Jasmine back,” Sam said.

“What about Sora? Donald? Goofy? Aladdin? They’re facing a genie,” Dean protested.

“And we’re dealing with the fate of the universe,” Sam responded. “I think they’d understand.”

Dean nodded. “Let’s go.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Dammit, Sam, we lost him.” Dean’s palms slammed down on the control panel in frustration.

“Yeah, I know,” his brother replied. “Jasmine’s gone too. They’re one step closer to opening this door they keep talking about.”

“It can’t be good, Sammy.”

“I know.”

Neither of them talked for a long moment. A planet came into the viewscreen in front of them, the small speck coming closer and closer, growing larger as they neared.

“Should we check it out?” Sam asked.

Dean shrugged. “Might as well. Maybe we’ll find something there. Maybe Cas is there. It’s the next world over, after all. Where else could he have gone?”

The Winchesters landed in the middle of a dark courtyard lit by dim streetlamps. It was wet and musty. A chill hung in the air.

“What do you suppose this place is?” Sam asked.

“Creepsville, that’s what. It reminds me of just about every single case we’ve done, right down to the spooky and sinister.”

Sam paused. “Do you hear that?”

Dean stood still for a moment, listening. “Music?”

The boys headed down the cobblestone pathway which led to a closed black iron gate. Music played in what looked to be the town center square. A fountain in the center of it spewed green water. Ghost-looking creatures surrounded the fountain, moving in what seemed to be some sort of choreography. They floated above the ground with wispy white bodies, ragged purple shirts, white gloves, and two yellow eyes- one inserted in their heads and the other hanging on chains that hung loosely down to their arms.

Out of the fountain rose a tall gangly skeleton with its arms crossed over its chest. It wore a black and white striped suit, its mouth had Frankenstein stitching, and its eye sockets looked straight out into the town center with a fierce glare.

“More Heartless?” Dean whispered.

“Maybe?”

“Stop, stop!” the skeleton suddenly called out, waving his bony arms around. “This all wrong.”

A short man with a tall hat and a white face with a deep frown walked up to the skeleton who was stepping out of the fountain. “Jack, it looked fine. What’s the matter?”

“It needs to be bigger and scarier, Mayor. This needs to be the best Halloween yet!”

Sam and Dean looked at each other each mouthing “Halloween?” to the other.

“I’m going to go talk to Doctor Finklestein and see if he can fix this,” the skeleton, Jack, was saying as he walked away from the Mayor. The brothers watched the Mayor run after Jack and into another door on the other side of the town center.

“What the hell was that?” Dean asked.

“I don’t know, but I hate Halloween.”

“We all know that, Sam.” Dean slowly opened the gate, which squeaked at the movement. The ghost creatures were still floating around in the town center, their eyes far away. “Heartless,” Dean said as he got out his gun.

“They don’t seem to notice us,” Sam said, Archfiend appearing in his hand. Sam got close to one, but it just stared at him with its vacant yellow eye. He brought his sword down on the Heartless, but it just skittered away, injured, before resuming its former position.

Dean walked up to another Heartless, poking its head with the barrel of his gun. “They’re tame as kittens.”

“Can I help you fellas with something?”

The brothers turned to see the skeleton looking at them with wide, curious eyes. “Do we kill him?” Sam whispered.

“Heck if I know,” Dean muttered back.

“Um, yes,” Sam said to the skeleton. “I’m Sam and this is Dean. We’re…”

“Part of the Halloween Task Force,” Dean cut in.

Sam looked at Dean out of the corner of his eye, shooting him a quick glare. “The Halloween Task Force,” Sam repeated, his voice tight. “And we just wanted to ask you a few questions about what you have going this year.”

“The Halloween Task Force?” the skeleton repeated, blinking a few times. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“We’re new this year,” Dean replied.

“Such funny outfits.”

“Yes, well, Halloween?” Sam said.

“Right, well, I’m Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King, but you can call me Jack. We’re working on a Heartless Halloween.” He spread his skeletal arms out in a showmanship gesture towards the Heartless. “They’ll sing, they’ll dance! It’ll be the best Halloween ever!”

“And how are you getting them to do all of this?” Sam asked.

Jack grinned. “Doctor Finklestein has made a heart that we use to control the Heartless. It still needs work, of course, but once it’s done, we’ll have everything we need to make this Halloween spook-tacular!”

“Hmmm, interesting, thank you, Jack. We look forward to this year’s Halloween festivities,” Dean said with a diplomatic and charming smile. “Come on, Sam.” Then he walked off, Sam following close behind. “They’re playing with fire, Sam. Controlling the Heartless? This has bad news written all over it.”

“I agree, but it’s all under control for now. There’s no reason to interfere. It doesn’t seem like Cas is here either, or Jasmine.”

“So you think we should just leave?”

“I don’t see the point in staying here. We can always come back. We can tell Sora and the others about the world and they can check it out later and see what they think. But there’s no danger here now and the longer we stay here, the less chance we have of finding Castiel and Jasmine.”

Dean slowly nodded. “Okay, fine, we’ll go your way. But I still think these guys are biting off more than they can chew.”

“You and me both,” Sam replied and then headed towards the gates that led to where they landed the _Impala_.

As they headed back toward Agrabah, since both brothers agreed that they should check up on Sora and the others before going anywhere else, their radar beeped.

“What’s on the radar?” Dean asked, eyes focused ahead.

Sam glanced down onto the gridded screen. “It looks like something big. It’s coming from behind us and it’s almost like…”

“Almost like what?”

“Almost like it’s chasing us.”

And then everything went black.

Dean’s first thought when he woke up was, “Sam?”

“Over here, Dean,” came Sam's reply, an almost croak.

Dean sat up, a wave of dizziness and nausea hitting him. He put a hand to his head. “Where the hell are we?”

Sam looked around the dark area. The pink ground underneath him was oddly damp and smooth while the walls around them caved in and out in a steady rhythm. “I have no idea.”

“My _Implala_!” Dean’s distraught voice diverted Sam’s attention to his elder brother, who was furiously inspecting the Gummi ship. “Her wings are busted, damn it.”

Sam looked around again, light catching his eyes. “I think there’s something over there, Dean.” Water lapped at his feet, a body of water stretching out in front of him. A speck of light floated across the water, revealing the outline of a boat.

“A boat?”

Sam nodded. “And there’s a light. There must be people here. Now how do we get over there?”

“Looks like we’re swimming,” Dean replied, wading into the water. Sam followed his brother reluctantly and they both swam through the water toward the boat. They surprisingly found stairs at the side of the boat and made their way up. An older gentleman came into view as they made their way up.

“Oh! Looks like we have more visitors!” the old man said, turning around. He had whitening hair and a mustache with reading glasses at the far end of his nose. As he moved toward the brothers, he revealed Sora, Donald, and Goofy behind him.

“Sam! Dean!” Sora called out, a smile on his face.

“You know these gentleman?” the man asked.

“They’re our friends,” Goofy replied.

Sam and Dean walked onto the deck of the boat. Now they could see that someone was living here. By the looks of the place, it had been a few weeks. “Funny seeing you guys here,” Dean said.

“After you guys went after Jafar, we were going to follow you, but then our friend in the trench coat came,” Sam explained. “He took Jasmine. We tried following him, but we lost him somewhere. Then we ended up here.”

“You guys wouldn't happen to know where ‘here’ is, would you?” Dean asked.

The older man smiled kindly. “As I was telling these fine boys, you’ve been swallowed by Monstro.”

“Monstro?” Sam asked.

“A giant whale,” Donald explained.

“We’ve been swallowed by a giant space whale?” Dean asked, obviously trying to suspend his disbelief.

Sora shrugged. “Seems like it.”

Sam’s face turned into disgust. “That means we’ve been swimming in _whale saliva_.”

“Gross,” Dean said, his face scrunching up. “I need a shower now.”

“How are you guys so clean?” Sam asked.

Donald waved his wand smugly. “Magic.”

“Can we get some of that?” Dean asked.

The duck waved his wand and suddenly the boys were all clean and dry.

“Thanks,” Sam said. “So now how do we get out of here? Our ship can’t fly.”

“Neither can ours,” Goofy said. He scratched his head. “A ton of Gummi blocks fell off and now we can’t fly.”

“I can probably fix both of them, but I need more parts,” Dean said.

The old man spoke up just then. “Maybe I can help. I don’t think we were properly introduced. My name is Geppetto. My son, Pinocchio has been collecting these blocks. They’re in that chest over there.”

Dean took a look at the chest that Geppetto pointed to. “Yeah, yeah, there should be plenty here.”

“Feel free to use whatever you like,” Geppetto said.

“Thank you,” Donald replied.

Geppetto shook his head. “It’s no trouble for friends of Pinocchio. He and I got separated for a while and I traveled all over looking for him. I hope he was a good boy in my absence. Well, we’ve all had quite a journey, right Pinocchio?” The old man looked around. “Pinocchio?”

“Is that him? Going into that, um, doorway?” Sam asked, pointing over at a dark hole in the back of the whale’s mouth. An animated wooden puppet disappeared into it as they all looked over.

“Yes, yes, that’s him,” Geppetto said, panic creeping into his voice. “Pinocchio! Get back here!”

“We’ll get him,” Sora immediately said.

“We’ll come too,” Sam said.

Dean looked up from the chest of Gummis. “I’ll stay and work on the ships,” he told Sam. “Someone’s gotta do it. You go get the kid.”

Sam nodded, following Sora’s gang into the hole.

Inside, the whale was nothing like Sam had seen before. Monstro’s insides were colorful, like funhouse colorful with patches of purple, pink, orange, and green everywhere. The whale was living and breathing, the walls moving in and out, with the occasional rumble or twitch from the organs underneath. It made Sam nauseated just thinking about it.

“What are you doing?” Sora asked Pinocchio, who was hiding just inside another one of the holes that Sam now suspected were chamber openings. “Come on, let’s go back.”

“You know, Geppetto’s awfully worried about you,” Goofy added.

Sam crouched down as if he was talking to a small child rather than a puppet. “He just wants to make sure that you’re safe. Come back with us, please.”

A few moments passed without any movement from Pinocchio.

“Pinocchio, stop fooling around! This is no time for games!” Sora burst, turning around in frustration. He was starting to walk out.

Sometimes Sam forgot how old Sora actually was. This definitely reminded him.  He was about to make a comment about how childish both of them were being when another voice spoke up.

“But, Sora, I thought you liked games. Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?”

Sora instantly turned around. “Riku! What are you doing here?”

Standing by Pinocchio was Riku, a smug look across his face with a hand on his hip. “Just playing with Pinocchio.”

“You know what I mean! What about Kairi? Did you find her?” Sora asked frantically, hopeful that Riku found his lost friend.

Riku shrugged. “Maybe. Catch us and maybe I’ll tell you what I know.” He grabbed Pinocchio’s arm and ran off into another chamber of Monstro.

“Come on!” Sora yelled after him, chasing him. Donald and Goofy gave each other a concerned look before following the Keyblade wielder.

“Wait, guys! We shouldn’t go too” -Sam’s voice dropped in disappointment as the others ran out of earshot- “far.” He sighed and went after them. He’d be damned if he let them get away. They were kind of his responsibility. He couldn’t help wondering if this was how Dean felt.

Sam followed them through the maze of Monstro, battling Heartless and trying to find Pinocchio and Riku, until they found both of them in one of Monstro’s many chambers.

Riku was standing in front of another chamber doorway, Pinocchio running through the doorway behind the silver-haired boy.

“Riku!” Sora called. “What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don’t you realize what you’re doing?”

Riku narrowed his eyes at Sora, placing a hand on his hip. “I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora.” His tone was accusatory, like daggers. “You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days.” He crossed his arms. “Do you even _want_ to save Kairi?”

Sora’s voice faltered. “I do.”

Suddenly, Pinocchio’s scream came from beyond the chamber door, catching everyone’s attention.

“Sounds like Pinocchio’s in trouble,” Sam said, running through the doorway. He could hear the others’ footsteps right behind him. Inside, they were greeted with a terrible sight. Pinocchio was trapped within a Heartless, its jaws forming a cage around the puppet. It was attached to the whale, with two long, flailing arms waving about.

“Help!” Pinocchio yelled, eyes wide and terrified.

Archfiend appeared in Sam’s hand.

“You up for this?” Riku asked, glancing over at Sora.

Sora pulled out his Keyblade. “No problem. Let’s do it.”

“Hmph.”

Sora leaped toward the Heartless, slashing and ripping into it with his Keyblade. Lightning bounced around the chamber from Donald’s wand and Goofy was fending off one of the creature’s flailing arms. Riku gracefully jumped around the chamber, placing deft and calculated blows on the Heartless. Sam was in the center of it, blocking blows with Archfiend and trying to get the beast to open its grisly mouth.

Finally, the creature let out a pained howl and jumped backwards, grabbing onto the roof of the whale’s organ. In the center of the chamber, a hole leading down somewhere opened up, in which the Heartless opened its maw and tossed a helpless Pinocchio inside before dropping down the hole itself.

Riku instantly jumped after it, with Sam right behind. Donald and Goofy’s shouts were soon audible, letting Sam know that the trio had followed too. Sam, Donald, Goofy, and Sora landed on Geppetto’s ship, coming from the roof of Monstro’s mouth.

Geppetto was standing out on a plank, begging, “Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!”

Sam looked over to see Riku on a ledge holding an unconscious Pinocchio under his arm.

“Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet,” Riku said from his perch on the other side of Monstro’s mouth.

“He’s no puppet!” Geppetto protested. “He’s my little boy!”

“He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts,” Riku noted, glancing down at the unconscious puppet. “I’m not sure, but maybe he can help someone who’s lost theirs.”

Sam noticed Sora tense up as Riku said those words. The boy moved closer to Geppetto, saying, “Wait a minute. Are you talking about Kairi?”

“What do you care about her?” Riku snapped. He walked off, Pinocchio in tow, and entered a second cavern in Monstro above the same one they’d entered before.

“Both ships are fixed and ready to fly,” Dean said, coming up behind Sam. He had a light sheen of sweat on him and held a Gummi in one hand. “What the hell is going on here?”

Sam quickly filled his brother in.

“So you went and fought some beast without me? You could’ve gotten killed, Sam.”

Sam clenched his jaw. “There was no time, Dean. Just like there’s no time now. Pinocchio’s in trouble. Sora and them are already heading after them. We should too.”

Dean tossed the Gummi aside. “Chill out, I’m coming.”

The group went through the other doorway and up a long passageway that led to where Riku was waiting, standing over Pinocchio’s lifeless form. There were some platforms clinging to the walls of the room with a raised platform in the center of the room. Everywhere else was filled with acid, green and abundant.

“Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku,” Sora said.

Riku turned around. “A puppet that’s lost its heart to the Heartless… Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Let’s join forces to save her. We can do it, together.” He approached Sora, arms open, stepping into the edge of the center platform.

Sora raised his Keyblade, saying nothing.

“What?” Riku’s voice hitched up in surprise. “You’d rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?”

“Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience!”

Riku stopped where he was. “Conscience?”

“You might not hear it, but right now it's loud and clear. And it's telling me you're on the wrong side!”

Sam nodded approvingly.

Riku scoffed. “Then you leave me no choice.”

There was a pause for a moment, the two groups staring at each other. Pinocchio stirred on the platform he was placed on, slowly waking up. Just then, something lowered from the ceiling, placing itself between Riku and Sora. Sam instantly recognized it as the Heartless from before who had Pinocchio trapped in its cage-like jaws.

“What the hell is that?” Dean muttered.

“Trouble,” Sam replied.

A bubble of dark energy appeared on the other side, near Riku. Dean could see Cas come partially out of it. “Come. Your business is finished here,” the angel told Riku. He looked over at Sam and Dean, locking eyes with them. “There are other matters to attend to. Maleficent beckons.”

Riku looked at Cas, glaring. “I know.”

Castiel said nothing, instead choosing to disappear inside the dark bubble.

“Cas!” Dean called after him.

Then Riku slid into the bubble and vanished.

Pinocchio ran past Sora and the gang, heading towards safety. The Heartless and the defenders of justice stared at one another for a second, sizing each other up, but then the Heartless roared and the battle begun.

Sora jumped up, bringing his Keyblade down on the creature. Lightning was once again bouncing around the chamber. Goofy charged with his shield and Sam was battling using Archfiend.

Dean pulled out his gun from behind his back, but he was knocked off of his feet and into the acid pool by one of the Heartless’s flailing arms. He could feel the burning of the acid throughout his body, the breath forced out of his lungs. He quickly got to his feet, climbing up onto one of the wall platforms and shooting it from there.

The Heartless spun around, arms out, knocking everyone back into the acid. Dean gritted his teeth as Sam landed in a deep puddle of it. He could hear Sam’s hisses of pain though he tried to hold it in. Something in him hardened and he tried to will Bravura into his hand, but the weapon didn’t come.

“Sam!” Donald yelled. A flower appeared above Sam’s head, healing all of his acid burns and soothing the pain.

The youngest Winchester brother got up, slashing at the Heartless with seemingly endless energy. Dean kept shooting, though he was quickly running out of ammo. Another arm attack caught him off guard, sending Dean into the wall. Donald and Goofy fell right after that, also being flung into walls and staying there, unconscious.

Sam and Sora still were on the field, though Dean could see the exhaustion wearing on their bodies from dodging and blocking the Heartless’s attacks.

Dean steeled himself, getting up though he body protested with every muscle movement. “No, you will come, you will listen to me,” Dean said under his breath. Then he felt Bravura’s handle materialize in his hand.

A sudden surge of energy rushed through him, just in time to jump in and block what would surely have been a devastating blow to Sora.

“Dean, your Keyblade!” Sora exclaimed.

Dean grinned, even under the stress of holding back one of the Heartless’s arms with his blade. “We’ve come to an understanding.”

Sora gave him a brief grin before rolling to the side of Dean so that the elder Winchester could release the arm.

“Let’s finish this thing,” Sam said.

Dean and Sora nodded.

The two brothers rushed in, headed for the mouth of the beast, landing critical blows on either side of the creature. It roared in pain.

“Now, Sora!” Sam yelled, landing clear on the other side with Dean.

Sora ran up the Heartless, jumping up at the last second and slicing the Heartless’s head, right through the middle.

The Heartless fell over, releasing a pink heart, and causing a chain reaction as explosions occurred around the chamber. The entire chamber rumbled and shook, and all made an effort to get out, but Sora stood at the entrance, calling out, “Riku! Riku, where are you?”

“Run!” Donald yelled.

“To the ships!” Dean ordered, grabbing Sora’s arm and practically dragging him out of there.

The groups made it back to their ships in time for Monstro to release them, sneezing them all out into space before the giant whale flew away and off into the distance.

Sam opened a comm link with _Highwind_. “Is everyone okay?”

“Everyone’s okay here,” Goofy replied. “I sure hope Geppetto and Pinocchio are okay too.”

“I’m sure they landed safely somewhere,” Dean encouraged. “They made it this far, so I don’t see them giving up so easily just because some whale sneezed.”

“Riku…” Sora’s dejected choice came through the speakers.

“We’ll find him, Sora,” Donald said.

“We’re in the same boat with Cas,” Sam said. “He’s not supposed to be on the wrong side either. But I’m glad you found it in you to stand up to him. We’ll figure it all out.”

“Yeah…,” was all Sora said.

“So where to next?” Dean asked.

“Sensors over here pick up another world just up ahead,” Goofy replied. “We can try there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dean said. “I want to know what Castiel thinks he’s doing just as much as you want to figure out this Riku thing, Sora. Together, we’ll get to the bottom of it, I swear.”

“Right. We’ll do it together,” Sora said, determination coming back to him. “Let’s go, full speed ahead.”


	6. Chapter 6

“There it is!” Sora exclaimed over the intercom.

In front of both ships was a rocky world that appeared to be completely covered in water.

“Get ready for landing,” came Donald’s voice.

“We can’t land there,” Sam protested. “There’s no land to land on.”

“We’ll drown,” Sora added.

“Not with my magic, we won’t. Just leave it to me!” Donald declared. “Now let’s land!”

Dean was fully expecting to drown in that world, but to his surprise he was swimming underwater and still breathing as though he was on land. He looked around, his brain screaming at him that he should be holding his breath and heading for the surface to get air. But something felt different to him, like he was missing something important.

Then Sora swam by him, shirtless and sporting a shark-like body from his waist down. That was when Dean finally flipped.

“What the hell, Donald! _This_ was your idea?” Dean yelled, examining the lower half of his body. From his waist down, Dean found himself with a black fish tail with spines running down the back of it. It shimmered blue when the scales caught the light. The hunter turned to look at the duck, who was now some sort of octopus-duck fusion.

“We had to blend in somehow,” the duck explained in simple terms.

“Don’t blame Donald,” Goofy said, who was now completely a turtle with a shield on its back.

“Yeah, you look great,” Sora said.

“I feel like a fish out of water,” Dean mumbled. “Where's Sam?”

“Down here,” Sam replied, awkwardly swimming up to come face to face with the group. He was waving his new gray dolphin-like lower half all over the place, finding himself quite unstable under the water and never where he wanted to go. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Do you have a better one?” Donald shot back.

“Not now guys, we have company,” Sora said, raising his voice above the bickering. His eyes were focused on the entrance to the little alcove they were in, where three sea creatures were swimming up to them through an opening in the little alcove.

“Come on, Sebastian!” the red-headed mermaid yelled, a little yellow and blue-striped flounder following her.

“Ariel, wait! Slow down! Don’t leave me behind!” a red crab called back with a Jamaican accent, at least to Dean's ears. The little crab swam into Donald, causing him to practically jump out of his shell and swim frantically away.

The flounder hid behind the mermaid.

“Relax, Sebastian,” Ariel said. “They don’t look like one of them. Right, Flounder?” The mermaid’s blue eyes traveled to the fish behind her.

Flounder’s face seemed worried. “I don’t know,” he replied. “There’s some weird about them.”

Sora laughed nervously, his voice reaching a slightly higher pitch when he asked, “What do you mean?”

“They do seem… a little different,” Ariel responded to the fish. She looked at the strange group in front of her. “Where are you from?”

“We're from really far away and we're not used to these waters,” Sora replied, another nervous laugh bubbling to the surface.

  
Dean wanted to clamp a hand over Sora’s mouth. The kid was a terrible liar. With a single glance at Sam, Dean could tell that his brother felt similarly. “We're just travelers passing through.”

Ariel smiled. “Seeing the world?”

Dean nodded. “That's right. Just seeing all there is.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Ariel said, her voice becoming dreamy. “In that case, welcome to Atlantica. You should stay in the area for a while. I'm sure there's plenty of things for you to see here.”

“Ariel, King Triton will not like this!” Sebastian warned.

She waved him off. “Oh, don't worry, Sebastian. It'll be perfectly alright.”

“Easy for you to say,” Sebastian muttered.

Sam shakily swam towards the entrance of the alcove. “I think we have even more company now, guys.”

Swimming towards them in the path leading to the alcove were quite a number of jellyfish-like creatures with Heartless emblems on them.

“Swim away!” Flounder yelled, terrified. He darted away into a clam shell with Sebastian while Ariel ducked into a little cave in the alcove. No one else moved. They just drew their weapons.

Fighting underwater was a mess. Dean was trying to get his bearings under the water. He found it difficult dealing with an extra dimension. Usually he had to only worry about forward, backward, left and right but here underwater he had to worry about above and below.

The Heartless seemed to sense this and came at them from all angles, their tentacles flying and stinging.

Dean could see Sam struggling out of the corner of his eye as he tried to move around in the water. Going up was easy; going down was hard. Dean could see that even Sora, Donald, and Goofy were having a hard time adjusting to their new bodies and environment.

Dean slashed at one of the Heartless, a pink heart floating up out of it. Looking around, he spotted Goofy surrounded by more of them, but the new sea turtle broke free by spinning, the edges of his shield ripping through the thin skin of the jellyfish Heartless.

Sora had just defeated another Heartless and Dean saw Donald casting a fire spell on some of the Heartless despite Dean's common sense telling him that it was impossible. Sam finished off the last Heartless after struggling a bit to position himself in a good place to land a killing blow.

“It's safe now,” Dean called out.

Ariel, Sebastian, and Flounder slowly came out of hiding.

“Those creatures chased us here,” Ariel said.

Sebastian put his claws on his head and shook. “Oh, no! Those monsters might be heading for the palace, too!”

Ariel looked at Flounder. “We'd better head back right away!”

"B-but wh-what if we run into more on our way back?” Flounder stammered.

Ariel frowned slightly, her face worried. She sighed and then looked at Sora and the gang. “I’m sorry, but we need your help. Please come to the palace with us. I don’t know if we’d be able to make it since there are so many of those creatures from here to there.”

Sora nodded. “Absolutely. You can count on us.”

Navigating through the waters became easier for the native land dwellers as they made their way through underwater caves, arches, currents, and whirlpools. There were huge yellow tridents on the walls that were painted with Dean didn’t know what, but Ariel explained that if they ever got lost, they should follow the tridents since they all pointed back to the palace.

Ariel wasn’t joking about the numerous Heartless swarming around Atlantica. It seemed everywhere they went there were more and more Heartless. There were the jellyfish ones, green ones with spears and propellers, and huge blue lantern fish-like ones.

Finally, they reached the palace. It had tall towers and beautiful spirals. The entire palace seemed to glow golden under the water.

“Holy hell,” Dean muttered under his breath, craning his neck to take in the enormity of the underwater castle.

“I think we just found out where Atlantis went,” Sam said.

Ariel looked behind her, about to make a comment, but then her eyes went wide. “Come on, swim faster!”

Sam and Dean looked behind them, spotting more Heartless than the five of them could even manage and swam faster than they ever thought they could.

“Follow me!” Ariel ordered, swimming faster as well. She led them through the gates of the palace and through its halls, never slowing until the hall widened into a circular room with a throne in the center.

Sitting on the throne was a merman with a long white beard, a strong blue fish-like tail, an age weathered face, and a golden three pronged crown on his head. His eyebrows were creased with annoyance and anger, a hard expression on his face. He lifted the golden trident in his hand and blasted the Heartless following the odd group out of existence with lightning. His eyes locked onto Ariel. “That was too close. As long as I have my trident, I will not tolerate those creatures inside this palace.”

“Daddy!” Ariel cried.

“Oh Ariel!” the merman said, his voice filled with anger and disappointment. “When will you listen? It's dangerous out there!” Ariel opened her mouth to respond, but her father added, “Strange creatures lurk outside.”

Sebastian left the group and swam up to Ariel's father, holding his claws out as if to introduce the merman. He cleared his throat. “Behold. You swim before the ruler of the seas: His Majesty, King Triton.”

It suddenly clicked into place for Dean why Ariel thought she could do whatever she wanted despite King Triton not liking it.

King Triton's eyes finally found the land dwellers who were hanging behind Ariel. “And who are they?” he asked, almost accusatory.

“They helped us fight off those creatures,” Ariel explained.

“They don't look familiar,” the king said.

“We come from an ocean very far away,” Sora cut in.

Dean was internally cringing, considering of handling this one himself. Lying was not Sora's strong suit and this King Triton didn't seem to take very kindly to outsiders. If he found out that they weren't of this world, who knew what the king would do?

“Yup. We came to find the Keyhole,” Goofy blurted out.

Dean held in a sigh. A glance at Sam told him that they were thinking the same thing.

King Triton's eyes narrowed. “The what?”

Ariel's blue eyes lit up with curiosity. “What's that?”

“Well it's a-” Goofy started, but he was interrupted by King Triton.

“There's no such thing. Certainly not here,” the king stated decisively.

“But Daddy!” Ariel started to protest.

“Ariel, not another word!” Sebastian warned.

“You are not to leave the palace,” King Triton ordered. “Is that clear?”

Ariel frowned, shooting her father a look that reeked of defiance and furiously swam out of the room. It strangely reminded Dean of the conversations between his own father, John Winchester, and Sam in their younger years.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy quickly followed Ariel out. Sam looked at Dean; Dean subtly shook his head as if to say that they wouldn't be following Ariel. Dean had other plans in mind.

The elder Winchester brother slowly swam forward, keeping his eyes down and trying to remain respectful. “King Triton, sir, I know that my brother and I are here at a dangerous time, but we know something about these creatures and just came to help.”

King Triton's eyes bored into the pair.

Sebastian looked absolutely mortified. “You are in the presence of a king! You can't speak to him without a proper audience.”

“It's alright, Sebastian. Let them speak.”

Sam came up next to Dean. “We know about these creatures and we can deal with them, maybe even stop them, for you, if you'll let us. I know that we're strangers to you, but we're open to whatever you feel you need to do in order to make yourself comfortable.”

King Triton brought his hand up to his beard, stroking it thoughtfully. “Neither of you will search for this 'Keyhole' that the others mentioned?”

The Winchesters shook their heads. “No sir,” Dean automatically replied, surprising himself a little bit.

King Triton nodded. “Very well then. Sebastian, have you anything to report?”

The crab looked a little flustered, looking from the Winchesters back to King Triton. But when the king gave no sign of the Winchesters' presence being a bother, Sebastian said, “It's just as you suspected, Your Majesty, the creatures seem to be coming from Ursula's grotto.”

The king's hand tightened around his trident. “I knew it. That sea witch is up to no good again. I see exile from the palace has taught her nothing.”

“Yes, she poses serious danger,” Sebastian said.

“And I told you to keep Ariel away from such danger, did I not?” King Triton's voice became steely as he locked his eyes on his advisor.

“Your Majesty, please. I uh...,” Sebastian said, flustered as he tried to come up with something to say in his own defense.

“Don't worry, we'll make sure that she stays out of danger,” Dean cut in. Sebastian gave a sigh of relief, shooting Dean a grateful glance.

“We'll look into the Ursula thing too,” Sam added.

King Triton nodded. “Sebastian, go with them. Keep an eye on them. All of them.”

Sebastian gave the king a bow. “Of course, Your Majesty.” To the Winchesters, he said, “Come on, I will show you the way.”

The Winchesters gave the king awkward bows before following Sebastian out of the throne room and then out of the palace into open waters.

“Dis way,” Sebastian said, pointing toward a cave that led who knows where. “I'm going to check on Ariel.”

“You always have eyes on her, huh?” Sam asked.

Sebastian sighed. “Ariel is the most restless of all her sisters.” He started swimming toward a cave blocked off by rock. “Just get a ride from the dolphin. He'll take you to Ursula's lair,” the crab called over his shoulder.

“' _Get a ride from the dolphin_ '?” Dean said, brows furrowed.

Sam shrugged. “I guess we're looking for a dolphin.” He started for the cave that Sebastian had pointed them towards.

“This place is freaking weird,” Dean said. “I have a tail. Dean Winchester chases tail, he doesn't actually _have_ a tail.” He gestured to his fishified lower half.

“Donald is quite the wizard,” Sam commented. “It feels... natural, even though I know it's not.”

The brothers entered the cave, swimming through it and finding it to be more of a tunnel than anything else. Though they found Heartless, with Archfiend and Bravura in Sam and Dean's respective hands, they were made quick work of.

The tunnel opened up to a large valley, where more Heartless waited for them.

“They don't stop, do they?” Dean sighed, Bravura appearing in his hand.

“They just don't get it,” Sam replied, pulling out Archfiend.

The Heartless were reduced to floating pink hearts when the Winchesters were through with them.

A blue-gray dolphin swam up to them after all the Heartless had been vanquished. “Thank you, thank you so much!”

“Um, yeah, sure. No problem,” Sam replied.

“Those creatures have been bothering me for weeks, you don't understand. I haven't been able to get anything done or go anywhere without those things on my tail. But now I'm free!” The dolphin did a flip out of sheer happiness. “If there's anything I can do for you, just say the word.”

“Actually,” Dean said slowly, “there is one thing.”

The dolphin dropped them off at the site of an old shipwreck before swiftly leaving, saying that there was no way he was going any closer to the wreck or Ursula's grotto.

“Guess we better start searching,” Sam said.

The brothers scouted the area though they were unsure of what exactly they were looking for.

“I wish there was a huge flashing neon sign pointing to what we're looking for,” Dean said.

“I know it's not flashing and neon, but does this fit the bill?”

Dean swam over to where Sam floated, his eyes catching onto the weirdness in the rock walls of the closed valley and the strange dark blue symbols on it. “Think it means something?”

“Pretty certain that it doesn't mean nothing, Dean. No one puts symbols up if it doesn't mean anything,” Sam replied.

“I wish Bobby were here,” Dean said, crossing his arms across his chest. “He would know.”

Sam snorted. “I don't think even Bobby would know about this. It's on a completely different world. I doubt Bobby has a book on ancient Atlantican texts.”

“Do you think he's out there somewhere?”

Sam went silent. “I haven't really thought about it,” Sam replied quietly after a while.

“I hope that wherever he is, he's safe.”

Sam nodded. “He's probably looking for us.”

“Shark!” Goofy's voice suddenly rang throughout the valley, ruining the moment.

The brothers looked around, spotting a huge great white shark cornering Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ariel. They drew their weapons and swam toward the commotion.

The shark had huge snapping teeth and swam quickly and decisively. It would circle and then snap, making it difficult for the group to land a hit.

Even Ariel was helping out with simple magics.

Dean swam in close, only to smacked away by the shark's strong tail. Sam took a different approach, ducking under the shark and slicing at its soft exposed underbelly.

The shark fled after that, returning to the depths of the sea.

“Thanks,” Sora said gratefully, slightly out of breath.

“What are you guys doing out here?” Sam asked.

“We were looking for the Keyhole,” Ariel said excitedly.

“Didn't your dad tell you not to?” Dean said.

Ariel frowned slightly. “He doesn't understand. He treats me like a little girl. He doesn't let me do anything.”

Sam smiled a little bit. “I know how that feels.”

“So did you find it?” Dean asked, changing the subject.

Sora shook his head. “No, we didn't find it.”

“But we did find this!” Ariel held out a clear crystal trident head.

“It was in an old treasure chest on the ship,” Goofy added.

“That's weird,” Dean said. “Looks pretty valuable though.”

“We think it goes in Ariel's grotto,” Sora said. “There's this weird indent that looks like this could fit in perfectly.”

“And that's even stranger,” Sam replied. “A crystal from a human ship that fits perfectly in an underwater cave? One that only the ones who live here would be able to get to? Doesn't that seem a little suspicious?”

Sora shrugged. “Never thought about it like that before.”

“I still think we should do it,” Ariel said. “What could possibly happen?”

Sam and Dean shared a meaningful look. They both knew damn too well what could happen. They'd seen it enough times to know.

Ariel went back to her grotto anyway. She refused to let Sam and Dean stop her, accusing them of being like her father. So Sam and Dean had no choice but to follow her, Sora, Donald, and Goofy back to Ariel's grotto.

The grotto was small, but what it lacked in width, it made up for in height and under the water, reaching high shelves was no longer a problem. It was a good thing too, because Ariel's getaway had shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling where only a small hole filtered sunlight into the grotto. On these shelves were all sorts of weird miscellaneous things. Dean saw mirrors, music boxes, globes, dolls, silverware, chests, and even candelabras. On one wall directly in front of the exit was the indent of a trident.

“You have quite the collection,” Dean said.

“Thank you,” Ariel beamed. She swam up and placed the crystal trident in the indent in the rock wall.

Suddenly, King Trident burst into the grotto. “Ariel, you've disobeyed me again! I told you not to leave the palace!” Then his eyes landed on the crystal trident. Fury flashed in his eyes (and Dean swore he saw a instant of fear) and he pointed his golden trident at the crystal one, destroying it in a burst of lightning.

“Daddy, no!” Ariel cried. “How could you...?” She pushed past her father, swimming out the door.

Dean's eyes caught a glimpse of red by the exit. Sebastian. He must have ratted Ariel out.

King Triton focused his hard eyes on Sora. “Young man, you're not from another ocean. You're from another world. Aren't you? Then you must be the key bearer.”

“How did you know?” Sora asked.

“You may fool Ariel, but you can't fool me. You don't know your dorsal fin from your tail. As the key bearer, you must already know... one must not meddle in the affairs of other worlds.”

“Of course I know that, but...”

King Triton shook his head. “You have violated this principle. The key bearer shatters peace and brings ruin.”

Goofy swam up next to Sora. “Aw, Sora's not like that.”

King Triton still remained steely. “I thank you for saving my daughter. But there is no room in my ocean for you or your key.” He turned to Sam and Dean. “I haven't forgotten about you two either. The same goes for you both. The key bearer and his friends only means disaster. I thank you both as well for saving my daughter and for volunteering to solve our infestation, but you've all overstayed your welcome.” With that, King Triton turned and swam out.

Sora frowned. “None of that was true... right?”

Donald shrugged. “I don't know.”

“He must'a had some reason though,” Goofy said, his face concerned.

“Hey, Sebastian,” Dean called out to the crab that was trying to slink away unnoticed. “Why'd you tell her dad she went out?”

Sebastian looked sympathetic. “It's my job to tell da king. He told me to watch her.”

“What do you know about the key bearer?” Sam asked, swimming over.

Sebastian held his claws up, helpless. “Nothing, I know absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. King Triton would not even tell me about da Keyhole.”

“Do you think we should go ask him?” Goofy asked.

“I don't know if he would tell us anything, but I'm kinda curious,” Sora said. “This is the first time I've ever been outside my world.” He conjured up his Keyblade in his hand. “The only other one I've met with a Keyblade is you, Dean, so if King Triton knows about the key bearer, then that means there must have been more Keyblade wielders before us, right?”

Dean nodded. “That sounds right.”

“So then the question remains... what did those Keyblade wielders before the both of you do to earn such a reputation?” Sam said, putting the pieces together.

“We should definitely go ask him!” Donald exclaimed.

Sora nodded. “Let's go.”

The group swam out the door, headed towards the palace.

The group was swimming through the halls of the palace towards the throne room when a woman's cackle echoed throughout the palace. “The trident is mine at last!” There were more words after that, but none of them could make it out.

“Does that sound like trouble to you?” Sam asked. “It sounds like trouble to me.”

Sora nodded. “We should hurry.”

The group barged into the throne room, catching sight of a large purple-skinned woman with short white hair and wild eyes. The lower half of her body was a black octopus, though she had more than eight shifty tentacles. The woman had a devilish grin on her face at the sight of the group of five coming in. She held King Triton's golden trident in one hand. Two large green eels circled the room.

Ariel floated by her father who slumped in his throne, seemingly weak and unable to move. A terrified expression was plastered on the mermaid's face.

“Why, we have company,” the woman said, still grinning devilishly. “I'm afraid you're a little late, handsomes.”

Then she was gone, just like that, in the blink of an eye. The eels had vanished too.

Ariel looked at her father, completely shattered. “Daddy!”

King Triton looked at Ariel, then at the group of five. He seemed to be in a lot of pain. His voice was rough, hardly audible when he said, “The trident... we must get it back.”

Dean nodded. “Yes sir. Come on, let's go.”

The group started to head out, but they were stopped by Ariel. “Wait, I'm coming with you. My father is hurt and it's all my fault. I thought if I gave Ursula the trident, she would help me go to other worlds, but she lied to me. She was so convincing...”

“You made a deal with the devil,” Sam said. “It's more common than you think. Don't worry, we'll fix it.”

“We'll get Ursula,” Ariel said. “We have to.”

“That's right,” Sebastian said from behind the five. Dean hadn't even noticed he was here. “I'm behind you, Ariel.”

“Wait, before you go,” King Triton said, still seeming quote hoarse. “Ursula draws power from her cauldron. To defeat Ursula, you must strike the cauldron with magic.”

“Thank you,” Sora said gratefully. “We won't disappoint you. We'll keep Ariel safe.”

The group traveled to the sunken ship and found themselves in front of the strange rock wall with the blue symbols.

“You're sure this is the place?” Sora asked.

Sebastian nodded. “Dis is the place.”

“So how do we get in?” Dean asked.

“Like dis.” Sebastian swam behind a partial shipwreck and rock wall, pressing a switch in the small space that revealed a cave. Ursula's lair.

The group swam in, gripping their weapons tightly, on high alert. The cave was lightly lit, but as they ventured forward, became darker and darker.

“I think I see something up ahead,” Ariel said.

Ahead was a light and an exit. The waters were dead beyond the exit, dark and still. A rock formation that looked like some kind of skull or gator head was out there, with big pointy rocks that looked like teeth.

“This is it,” Sam said.

The entire place reeked of danger, but the group knew they had to go. They swam across the still waters and into the mouth of the lair.

The furthest end of the lair was a small room with a cauldron in the middle, a mirror and table on one side, and a hole on the wall right across from the entrance. The inside reminded them all of a bone cage.

“Come out!” Donald commanded.

“Your time has come!” Sebastian yelled.

Ursula slunk out from the hole, scowling at them. Two eels slid out from behind her, their eyes narrowed and teeth bared. “What do you little punks want?”

“Give back my father's trident!” Ariel said.

“Oh, but poppet, we had a deal,” Ursula replied, her lips pouting a little.

“The deal is off,” Dean said. “And if you don't give the trident to us now, then we'll take it by force.”

Ursula let out a low chortle. “I'd love to see you try, precious.”

Then Dean charged, Bravura tightly gripped in his hand. Before he could get to the sea witch, her two eels intercepted him, one of them wrapping itself around Dean, tightly squeezing the hunter.

“Dean!” Sam yelled, rushing forward.

“The cauldron!” Dean wheezed out.

Sam nodded, pointing Archfiend at the bubbling cauldron and shooting a fireball at it. The fireball bounced off of the cauldron, heading straight for Ursula.

“Agh!” Ursula cried out. She turned to look at Sam and now Sora, Donald, and Ariel who were readying spells of their own. “Fools!” She started spinning, her tentacles flying out. She headed straight for the magic users, all of whom didn’t make it it time to get out of the way. They were all sent flying in different directions.

Goofy rammed into the eel holding Dean and freeing him, only to get attacked by the other eel right afterward.

Sam straightened himself out, seeing Ursula slow down, and swam toward her. “I’ll distract her. Keep using magic on the cauldron!” He raised Archfiend, swinging it in an arc towards her. A tentacle wrapped around his wrist, stopping the arc. Ursula’s hard eyes locked with his.

Dean rammed Ursula from behind, knocking her away, but her her grip on Sam still held and she brought him with herself into the wall. Dean took his Keyblade, whacking the tentacle holding his brother which freed him and as they swam away, three more fireballs came straight at Ursula.

Sam and Dean charged at a heavily injured Ursula again, their weapons hacking and slashing at her.

“Incoming!” Sora yelled, and the brothers got out of the way in time for another fireball to come through.

The cauldron bubbled over, sending a shockwave throughout the enter room, hitting Ursula and her eels.

Goofy let out a sigh of relief as the eels let go of him and floated upward, disappearing in a cloud of darkness.

Ursula spun around, sending Sam and Dean away from her before they could do anything. “You’ll pay for this!” she spat before swimming into the hole in the room and disappearing.

“Let’s go. We must get the trident back.” Ariel said. She swam into the mysterious hole after Ursula, leaving the others with no choice but to follow her.

The hole was a long tunnel that led down and out into the open sea. Here it was incredibly clear and blue. Nothing else was in sight beside the ocean floor and the open sea.

“There she is!” Ariel said, pointing at the small form of the sea witch as she swam away. They could see a glint of gold in her hand: King Triton’s trident.

Ursula laughed. “You pathetic fools! I rule the seas now!” She raised the trident above her head and activated its magic. The sea grew murky, dark black inky smoke covering everything, even obscuring Ursula from view. Ursula suddenly emerged from the smoke, bigger and larger than ever. She practically towered over the protectors of light. She must have been at least as tall as the Empire State Building in Dean’s view. Ursula’s face was triumphant. “The sea and all its spoils bow to my power!” She raised the trident, sending lightning through the waters.

The group got out of the way easily, continuing their movement to avoid Ursula’s magic.

“So what’s the plan?” Sora asked.

“I guess we tire her out,” Sam replied. “She’s bigger so she’ll use more energy and tire easily. We can distract her and then take her out.”

“How will we take her out?” Ariel asked, swimming up beside Sam.

He hesitated. “I’m not sure yet.”

“You better figure it out soon, Sammy. We’re running out of time, here,” Dean replied.

Suddenly, they were yanked toward Ursula by a strong current. Dean looked behind him as he tried to swim furiously in the other direction and saw Ursula drawing in a breath, creating the current that was drawing them towards her.

Donald wasn’t able to swim fast enough, getting too close to Ursula’s mouth and she bit down on his octopus lower half. Donald let out a cry of pain and swam away quickly.

“Heal!” Sora yelled, healing Donald completely.

“Thank you!” Donald said.

Sam turned and charged at Ursula, hitting her between the eyes. Dean followed suit, aiming for her face.

“Puny fools,” Ursula spat, swatting them away.

Fireballs headed toward the giant sea witch, created by Sora, Donald, and Ariel, but even though they hit her, they didn’t seem to bother Ursula.

“Take this!” Ursula raised her trident again, a lighting wave shocking everyone in the water around her. She cackled as they let out cries of pain. She let out a few bubbles that barreled towards them.

“We can’t keep this up,” Sora said, barely dodging a bubble that Ursula had created.

Dean deflected one of the bubbles, saying, “Sam, have you figured something out yet?”

“I think so,” he replied. “Dean, Goofy, distract her. Hit her eyes, nose, and mouth. Stay away from everything else, don’t get hit.” Dean and Goofy nodded, swimming towards Ursula. “Donald, Sora, Ariel, you’re with me. Bring everything you got.”

“Hey, seaweed breath!” Dean taunted. “Over here!”

Dean and Goofy took turns coming at Ursula. She swiped and blew bubbles and created currents to drag them in. Dean got bit a few times, and Goofy was often too slow to dodge bubbles, but they could see Ursula tiring. She was almost blind in one her eyes, so her aim was a little off and her breathing was labored.

Unfortunately, Dean and Goofy were also wearing themselves out.

Ursula let loose another round of lighting, striking the merman and the sea turtle and leaving them floating in the open sea, weakened.

“Sam, now would be a perfect time to finish this!” Dean yelled, cringing.

“Now, guys!” Sam yelled.

“Thunder!” the combined voices of Donald, Sora, Ariel, and Sam cried out.

A huge thunderbolt struck Ursula, shocking her to the core. She screamed in pain as the lightning went through her body. Smoke rose out from under her and it swallowed her whole. When it cleared, only the trident remained floating in the open water.

“Daddy, I’m so sorry,” Ariel said, hanging her head.

King Triton had his trident back and he looked down at Ariel with the love of a father. He was fully healed now and was sitting in his throne in the throne room again without fear.

“Please don’t be angry with her,” Sora said, swimming up next to Ariel.

King Triton shook his head. “It's my fault. You followed Ursula because… I wouldn't let you follow your heart. And when you found that crystal, I lost my temper and destroyed it.”

Goofy’s ears perked up. “Oh, yeah, the crystal! Why did you destroy it?”

“That crystal held the power to reveal the Keyhole. The Keyhole is dangerous. I had to keep you away from it at any cost,” King Triton replied.

“Daddy…” Ariel trailed off.

King Triton’s attention turned to Sora. “Key bearer, I have one more request: Seal the Keyhole. My trident also holds the power to reveal the Keyhole. Will you do it?” He held out his trident.

Sora nodded, slowly swimming up to take the trident from the king. “Of course. That's what we had in mind from the start.” He held the trident in his hands carefully and with awe.

“Where is the Keyhole, Daddy?” Ariel asked.

King Triton let out a small laugh of disbelief. “You should know better than anyone. It's in your grotto.”

“Really…? Sora, let's go,” Goofy said.

Sora nodded. “Thank you,” he said to the king.

Donald, Goofy, Sora, and Ariel started to swim out, Sam and Dean right behind them.

“Sam, Dean,” King Triton said.

The two brothers stopped and turned to look at King Triton.

“The boy is good,” the king began. “Make sure he stays that way.”

“He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, sir,” Dean replied.

King Triton nodded, slowly stroking his beard. “I’m sure,” he mused. “But you two should also be careful. You also have a key, Dean, though you try to hide it from me, and Sam, that blade has seen better days.” Sam and Dean were frozen to the spot. “Make sure you stay good, both of you. The world has fallen into ruin once and I would hate to see it fall into ruin again.”

“We’ve always sought to protect it,” Sam replied, choosing his words carefully though he meant every one. “And we always will.”

Sam, Dean, Ariel, Sebastian, Sora, Donald, and Goofy gathered inside Ariel’s grotto. Ariel held the trident in her hands, the tip pointed at where the crystal trident used to be. The trident took on a golden glow, magically raising itself above Ariel’s hands and lining its top with the trident pattern on the grotto’s wall. The indent glowed and bubbles came up out of the ground of the grotto. A light patch glowed in the grotto, revealing the Keyhole.

Sora lifted up his Keyblade, light gathering at the tip of it. A beam shot from his Keyblade to the Keyhole and there was a satisfying click from it. The Keyhole faded in a sea of bubbles.

Ariel turned to Sora. “Tell me. Your worlds, what are they like?” Ariel asked.

Sora scratched the back of his head. “Oh, about that... Sorry for lying to you.”

Ariel shrugged. “It's okay. Besides, if you guys can travel to other worlds, maybe I can, too.” Ariel swam to the top of the grotto where the light filtered down from above. “So many places I want to see... I know I'll get there someday. I'll find a way somehow. I'm sure of it.”

Sebastian sighed. “Well, if you find it, do me a favor and leave me out of it.”

Ariel giggled. “Will do, Sebastian.”

Sora smiled. “Well, it’s time for us to go.”

“Oh, of course,” Ariel said. “Feel free to stop by anytime. Thank you for helping me here, all of you.” Her eyes found Sam and Dean.

“It was nice meeting you,” Sam said before swimming out.

“Take care of yourself,” Dean said. “And no more deals, okay?”

Ariel nodded. “No more deals.”

Back on the their Gummi ships, Dean let out a sigh of relief. “Legs, I missed you. I will never leave you again.”

Sora’s voice came over the communications system. “So where should we go next? We didn’t see Riku or your friend here, but I’m sure they’re both out there somewhere.”

“We saw a pretty strange world earlier on the other side of Agrabah,” Dean said. “I need to go back to Traverse Town to check in with Cid, but you guys should check that out while we’re over there.”

“How will we find you guys?” Donald asked.

“Well our sensors are picking up something just past Atlantica. In two days, we can meet up there. How’s that sound?” Sam asked.

“Sounds good,” Sora replied. “See you then.”

 _Highwind_ zoomed out of _Impala_ ’s viewscreen. Then Dean set in a course for Traverse Town and the Winchesters were off.


	7. Chapter 7

As Dean was taking them around to Traverse Town, Sam noticed something weird on the ship scanners. Sam was about to mention this weird thing to Dean when Dean cursed and quickly steered the ship in a whole different direction, practically tipping the Gummi ship over.

“Whoa!” Sam cried out. “Dean!”

“Sorry, Sam, but we got pirates,” Dean said, hands a flurry on the controls.

“Pirates?” Sam peered out one of side windows, his eyes growing large at the sight of a huge red pirate ship flying the distinctive sign of piracy: the Jolly Roger. The iconic skull and crossbones could even be seen in space. “How the hell is that ship flying?”

“Probably damn magic,” Dean replied. “I’m trying to outrun it.”

Sam pressed one of the buttons on the dashboard, opening up a channel to _Highwind_. “Sora, it’s us, we’re getting attacked. There’s some sort of pirate ship after us.”

“She’s not fast enough, Sam, brace yourself!” Dean yelled.

Sam clung onto the thing nearest to him, just in time for the big ship to ram the _Impala._

 

Sam woke up on the deck of the pirate ship, his head and body sore. Dean was beside him, wrapped in ropes and glaring at the pirates. The younger Winchester brother quickly realized that both of them were wrapped in ropes and they were in trouble.

A pirate dressed all in red with a wide brimmed hat that had a large purple feather sticking out of it stood before them. One of his hands was replaced with a sharp silver hook. He had dark hair and small mustache that spiked out in each direction across his face. It seemed as though his face was formed into a permanent scowl. “Why do we have these bilge rats again, Smee?”

A pudgy short man in a striped blue shirt and bright head hat looked up at the captain. “The man in the trench coat said to get them.”

“Is that blasted angel Castiel the captain now?” the tall pirate asked.

Dean’s ears honed in on Castiel’s name.

“No, but you are expected to yield to Maleficent when the need arises,” Castiel replied, stepping into sight on the balcony above. “Such as now.”

The captain scowled deeper. “And what do you suppose I do with them?”

“Leave them,” Castiel said. He appeared with the flap of his wings in front of the Winchesters. His eyes never left the brothers. “I will deal with them as I see fit.”

“Hmph.” The captain turned on his heel and left, the pudgy pirate Smee following him.

“Cas, snap out it,” Dean pleaded. “Whatever this Maleficent has done to you, please, snap out of it.”

“We’re your friends, Cas,” Sam added.

Castiel blinked uncomprehendingly. “I have no friends.” His stare then became malicious. “You are to stop interfering with affairs that are not yours.”

“You’re going to destroy the world, Cas,” Dean said.

Castiel turned away from the Winchesters, staring out at space. His shadowy black wings were see-through in that moment, before returning to their inky blackness. His eyes returned to the Winchesters. “One who knows nothing can understand nothing. Stay out of our way or next time you will not receive a simple scolding.”

“Bite me, Cas,” Dean spat.

Castiel’s cold blue eyes locked onto the Winchester. “I could rip your heart out of your still-breathing chest. I could crush your throat without breaking a sweat. I could torture you to the brink of death and keep you alive for days after, healing you and then breaking you over and over again, just like you experienced in Hell, only a thousand times worse.” The angel paused, allowing his words to sink in. “So if you ask me to bite you, expect me to do so much worse.”

Dean and Castiel held eye contact for heartbeat, the two forces colliding in the silence.

“Smee! Arm the cannons!” came Captain Hook’s voice from somewhere farther down the ship, ruining the moment and breaking Castiel’s icy hold on the boys.

Castiel turned away from them, disappearing, presumably to Captain Hook’s side.

“What the hell is wrong with him?” Dean asked, angrily trying to break free of his rope bonds.

“Maleficent,” Sam replied. His eyes surveyed the pirate ship, trying to figure out what to do.

“I’m going to deep fry that bitch,” Dean growled.

“Let’s get out of here first,” Sam said. “Then we can fix Cas.”

Suddenly something flew over them, laughing, “Hey, you old codfish!”

“Peter Pan!” Captain Hook’s voice traveled over to the Winchesters.

“Where’s Wendy?” the same voice asked.

Sam and Dean straightened up, trying to see what was going on.

“Sam, I think I must be drunk or high or something,” Dean said, deadpan.

Sam shook his head, pressing his lips together. “I see it too.”

Floating in the air, just within Sam and Dean’s line of sight was a floating teenaged boy with red hair and pointed ears. He wore a light green shirt with forest green pants, brown shoes, and a dark green hat with a feather sticking out of it. Floating beside the flying boy was a small ball of bright yellow light. A cannon sounded off and the Winchesters watched the boy dodge the cannonball with ease as he flew through the air. “Give her back, Hook!” Peter Pan yelled, pulling out a small dagger.

Then he flew out of sight, down toward the Captain and out of sight.

“Come on, Sam, we gotta get out of here.” Dean struggled with his ropes wincing as the rough material scraped against his skin.

“Dean,” Sam hissed. “Wait.”

Dean froze, looking up to see what Sam was freaking out over. His eyes caught Riku carrying someone in his arms, a girl with auburn hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to stare into nothingness. She breathed in his arms, but it seemed as though she wasn’t really alive. He set her down near the brothers and ran to go help the captain and whoever else deal with Peter Pan.

“Hey, hey,” Sam called out to the girl, but the girl didn’t look up, didn’t even move. Sam glanced at Dean. “Do you think this is who Sora and Riku were both looking for?”

Dean’s eyes were locked onto the girl. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s possible.”

“I’ve got you now, Peter Pan!” Captain Hook yelled with glee. “Put him below deck, Smee.”

“Y-y-yes Captain,” Smee stuttered.

Sam and Dean looked up as Captain Hook and Riku talked on the balcony. “Are you happy now, boy? We got the girl,” the captain said.

“I’ll be happy once we retrieve her heart,” Riku replied icily.

Captain Hook shook his head. “Her heart is lost. The Heartless devoured it. I’ll stake me other hand it’s lost forever.”

Riku’s hands curled into fists. “I will find it no matter what.” He looked off into the distance, off into the space between worlds. “The other girl is of no use to us.”

“What? So Wendy’s not one of the chosen ones?”

“There are seven, supposedly, and Maleficent says she’s not one of them. Hoist anchor as soon as possible. Leave all the dead weight behind, including her,” Riku said.

Captain Hook flailed his arms around in frustration as he spoke. “After the trouble of capturing her? And why those seven? What is Maleficent planning anyway?”

Riku shrugged and looked down below at the sleeping girl. “Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi’s heart back, I couldn’t care less.”

“So it is Kairi,” Sam whispered.

Riku jumped over the balcony, landing a few feet away from Kairi and the Winchester boys. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the Winchesters. “What are they doing here?”

“Ask your lackey friend,” Captain Hook replied, leaving the Winchester’s sight.

“What’s going on?” Dean asked. “What were you talking about? The chosen ones?”

“That’s none of your business,” Riku replied. “If you’re here, then Sora can’t be far behind.” The silver haired boy looked around. “Castiel.”

Suddenly the angel was before them again with the flap of his dark wings. “Riku.”

Riku’s eyes returned to the Winchesters. “You should put them below deck. I think we can expect visitors soon.”

Castiel nodded, then moved towards the brothers, hands outstretched. Sam and Dean tried to move away, but their rope bonds prevented them from doing anything more than moving their heads. Castiel’s cold fingertips touched their foreheads and everything slipped away.

 

“Hey, guys, wake up,” Sora’s voice said from outside of the blackness of sleep.

Dean’s eyes slowly opened, the blurry figures before him redefining themselves. Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood in front of him with concerned eyes. “You’re a really deep sleeper, you know.”

“Where’s Sam?” Dean asked, sitting up straight.

“I’m right here, Dean.” Sam came out from behind a bunch of crates and barrels in the small room.

“We came as soon as we got your message,” Donald said and Goofy nodded in the background.

Sora’s eyes lit up. “I saw Kairi!”

“You got yourselves captured,” Dean commented, heaving himself to his feet.

Goofy shook his head. “It’s not like that at all.”

Donald gave Dean a grin. “We snuck on board!”

Sora nodded. “Come one, let’s grab Kairi and Wendy and we can get out of here.”

“Wendy?” Dean questioned.

The flying boy in green that the Winchester brothers spotted earlier came into Dean’s view. He crossed his arms. “You’re sure they’re not pirates?”

“I’m certain,” Sora reassured.

The boy frowned, but conceded. “Fine. If you say they’re good, then okay.” His mischievous brown eyes met Dean’s green ones. “The name’s Peter Pan. I already met your brother.”

“I remember you,” Dean replied stiffly. “You were fighting Captain Hook and lost.”

Peter held his head up in defiance. “I did not. I just played captured so I could get to Wendy easier.”

“Whatever you say,” Dean said, heading to the door.

“Alright Tink, open the door,” Peter said.

“Tink?” Dean asked. His eyes fixed on the glowing yellow ball of light that came toward him seemingly out of nowhere. It stopped a few inches from his face, the little fairy inside the ring of light with her hands on her hips. She wore a short green dress and had blonde hair. Light translucent wings sprouted from her back. The sound of twinkling bells came out of her when she opened her mouth.

“This is Tinker Bell. She has quite a temper sometimes,” Peter said. “Could you just open the door, Tink?”

The fairy flew off. A few moments later, the group heard a click from the locked door to the ship’s hold. Sam pushed it open and they exited into a more open area of the ship. Heartless instantly appeared, wearing pirate outfits and holding broad curved swords. Their sharp toothy grins leered at the group from under their red bandanas.

Archfiend and Bravura swiftly appeared in their owners’ hands. Sora whipped out his Keybalde; Donald and Goofy had their weapons while Peter pulled out a dagger. The group split into twos, trying to figure out how to combat these new forms of Heartless. These ones were strong and skilled with a blade. Their swings were hard and exact. Sam and Dean, as well as most of the others, spent more time blocking the Heartless’ attacks than hitting their opponents.

Donald’s cries of pain could be heard throughout the ship’s bottom as he tried unsuccessfully to hit and dodge the attacks of these fast-moving opponents. Peter Pan was probably having the most success out of all of them. He was working with Sora as Peter flew around above the Heartless and Sora would corner them while Peter stuck from above.

Luckily, the brothers soon found opening in the Heartless’ offense, effectively ending their battle with only a few cuts and bruises. The others finished the Heartless off barely minutes after.

“How are you flying?” Dean asked, looking up at Peter in amazement, not really having had time to question the boy’s magical powers until now.

“Yeah, Peter, how are you doing it?” Sora asked.

Peter shrugged. “It’s easy. Anyone can fly. Wanna try?”

Sora nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah!”

Peter whistled and Tinker Bell flew into the corridor, which was suddenly filled with little bells. “Can you help them out?” The little fairy looked at Peterand then at the small group. Angry little bell sounds came from her. “Aw, Tink, please?”

Tinker Bell crossed her arms and stomped her feet in midair before sighing and flying all around the Winchesters, Sora, Donald, and Goofy. She was gone after that.

Peter looked at the group. “Just a little bit of pixie dust and you can fly. Try it.”

There were some confused glances among Dean’s more than skeptical look. Donald was the first to try it, flapping his arms furiously but finding himself nowhere. Sora jumped a few times just to try, but he had no luck either. Dean wasn’t even going to try and one look at Sam told him his brother had the same thought.

Peter placed his hand on his chin in thought. “Huh. That usually works.”

“Alright, enough fooling around, let’s get searching,” Sam said. “We’ll split up, see what we can find that way.”

 

Sam and Dean wandered through the ship, carefully placing their steps on the creaking floorboards. The ship was a maze of corridors, Heartless, and locked doors.

“I don’t like the sound of any of this,” Sam commented. “All of this talk about chosen ones and how there are seven of them. Kinda reminds me of back home.”

“Only it’s not us,” Dean added.

Sam nodded. “First Cas takes Jasmine, and now he’s here doing who the hell knows what. What’s this about Wendy anyway?”

Dean shrugged. “I just know that whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

“Shhhh.” Sam paused for a second.

“What?” Dean whispered.

Sam’s eyes widened. “I hear footsteps. Someone’s coming.”

Dean looked around frantically, then ran over to the next closest side door. Thankfully this one opened with no problem. The boys shut the door behind them, cracking it just slightly to listen in and watch.

It was a bunch of Heartless walking down the hall, the same pirates from before. They went into the room across the hall and suddenly a girl’s voice could be heard.

“Hey, get your hands off me!” she cried. Then she let out a scream.

Dean moved to go save her, but he was stopped by his brother who shook his head. His eyes said that there were too many Heartless for them to take on. They needed to pick their moment, so Dean was forced to stay put, even as they watched the Heartless carry Kairi, the sleeping girl, away.

When they were gone, the brothers entered the room. A girl with brown curls and a bright blue dress lay unconscious on the floor. Netting on the floor gave them a view of the room below, which so happened to be where Sora and the others were now.

Dean rushed to the girl’s side.

“Sam! Dean!” Sora called from below. “Did you see them?”

“Wendy is here,” Sam started, but he was cut off by Peter.

“Is she okay?” Peter called up.

“She’s unconscious, but she’s fine,” Dean responded.

“Where’s Kairi?” Sora asked, his voice colored with worry.

“They took her,” Sam replied. “The Heartless took her away.”

“Why didn’t you stop them?” Sora asked accusingly.

“It was too risky,” he said. “She might’ve gotten hurt in the fight. I’m sorry.”

Sora nodded. “We’ll catch her. We’ll be right up. I’m coming Kairi.”

Then the group below was gone.

 

It took a full half hour for Sora’s group to show. They came from the ceiling and looked more beat up and bedraggled than either Sam or Dean remembered them being.

“What happened to you guys?” Dean asked, looking up from where he was watching Wendy’s condition.

“Long story,” Sora replied.

“Uhh there was a Heartless that looked exactly like Sora here,” Goofy replied. “Riku summoned it and we had to fight it.”

“It put up one heck of a fight,” Sora admitted.

Peter flew over to Wendy, taking her from Dean. Tinker Bell flew up next to the red-headed boy and started talking. “Come on, Tink! Not now.” He looked at the group before him. “Well, this is as far as I can go. I gotta help Wendy.”

Then Peter was gone.

“We have to find Kairi,” Sora said once Peter had left. “I think I saw Riku go to the outside of the ship with her.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Dean said.

 

The group exited the ship out onto the deck to see themselves surrounded by Heartless, Smee, and Captain Hook. The Heartless all had their swords up and pointed at their throats. They were outnumbered.

Hook haughtily held his head up, but his face still held his signature scowl. “Quite codfish they are, Riku and that blasted angel – running off with that girl without even saying goodbye.”

“Run off where? Tell me, where did they go?”  Sora asked.

Hook sniffed disdainfully. “To the ruins of Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent resides.” He paused. “But you all won’t be getting there.” Hook pulled out an old glowing glass lantern, where trapped inside was Tinker Bell. “Unless you intend to leave your little pixie friend behind?”

Ice formed in Dean’s stomach. A hostage situation was never pretty.

“No…” Sora sighed.

Captain Hook smirked. “Hand over the Keyblades and I’ll spare your lives. Be glad I’m merciful, unlike the Heartless. So, which will it be? The Keyblades or the plank?”

Within the short silence that followed Captain Hook’s sentence, a mysterious ticking noise, not unlike that of a clock, was heard. Dean watched as Captain Hook’s eyes bulged at the sound.

“It’s him! The crocodile that took me hand! Oh, Smee! He’s after me other hand! I can’t stay here! Go away you crocodile!” he shouted. “I can’t stand the sight of him. Smee, you take care of them!” Then Hook ran up the stairs into his cabin, the crocodile’s ticking noise continuing even after Hook left.

“A-a-alright, onto the plank you go,” Smee said.

One of the pirate Heartless nudged Sora out of line and toward the plank. Sora obliged hesitantly, going very slowly. The Heartless practically pounced on Donald when he tried to reach out to Sora in an effort to stop him.

“It’s alright, Donald,” Sora said in response as he slowly walked towards the end of the plank. “It’s just a swim.” Then he gulped when he looked down and stared straight into the crocodile’s eager open mouth.

Dean looked around at the Heartless, their beady eyes focused on their prisoners. He’d risk summoning Bravura in not for the swords directly at his throat. A glance at Sam told him that the same thought was going through Sam’s head.

Then Sora jumped and disappeared below their sightline.

“Sora!” Dean yelled, ignoring the blades at his throat.

Moments later, Sora flew up out of the water, facing Smee and the gang with a smile on his face. A flash of green drew Dean’s attention and he couldn’t help but feel a sense of victory when he saw Peter Pan holding Tinker Bell’s prison.

The Heartless looked at Smee, who ran and fled into the ship at that moment, and in the Heartless’ lapse of attention, Sam, Dean, Donald, and Goofy broke free, deflecting the swords and pushing them away.

“Thanks, Peter,” Sora said, flying over to the red-head.

Peter shrugged. “Hey, don’t mention it. You don’t think I’d leave you guys and Tink behind, did you?”

“Now where’d Captain Hook go?” Dean asked as he finished off a Heartless.

“I think that old codfish slunk back to his lair,” Peter said.

“I guess we’d better go get him,” Sora replied.

Peter smirked, flying over to the captain’s quarters and landing just outside of the door.

“Is that you, Smee?” came Captain Hook’s voice from the other side of the door. He still sounded a bit shaken from the crocodile. “Did you finish them off?”

“Watch this,” he mouthed. Then he held his nose and started talking. Out of his mouth came a voice exactly like Smee’s. “Aye, Captain. They walked the plank, every last one of them.”

The pirate captain came out from his cabin, failing to see Peter Pan by the door, so Peter Pan poked his dagger into Captain Hook’s back. The captain nearly jumped out of his skin, turning around and simultaneously pulling out his rapier, and pointing it at Peter. “P-Peter Pa- blast you!”

Peter smirked, his feet lifting a few inches above the ground. “Ready to make a splash, you codfish? Now it’s your turn to walk the plank!”

Sam and Dean ran up behind the pirate, tackling him and pinning him to the ship’s deck.

“Blast you, blast you all!” Captain Hook wheezed under the weight of the two brothers.

Dean pinned the pirate’s hands behind his back while Sam took the captain’s sword away. “Get up,” Dean ordered, pulling the pirate up as he got to his feet. “What should we do with him?” The pirate struggled in Dean’s grasp.

Peter Pan smirked. “I know.” Then he swooped down and shoved the pirate into the water.

“Dude, what the hell!” Dean exclaimed, running to the ship’s side, Sam right behind him. “You can’t just throw people overboard!”

“An old codfish like him can be thrown overboard any day,” Peter replied, watching as Captain Hook ran across the surface of the water, the ticking crocodile close behind. The two disappeared on the horizon.

“That breaks so many laws of physics, it’s unbelievable,” Sam said under his breath.

Tinker Bell flew up to Peter at that moment, her chimes coming about quickly.

“What’s that, Tink? What about the clock tower? You say there’s something there?” Peter said.

“How do we get there?” Sam asked.

“Easy,” Peter said. “We fly.”

Dean suddenly got a petrified look on his face. “Uh, surely there’s another way?”

“Yeah, I can’t fly,” Sam said.

Peter rolled his eyes.

“Sure you can!” Sora said, rising into the air. “If I can fly, you can too!” Sora held out his hand for Dean to take, and Dean hesitantly took it. And suddenly, just like that, Dean was flying. Not because Sora was dragging him up, the boy had let go some time ago, and all that was now keeping Dean up was a trail of yellow pixie dust sparkling behind him.

“Holy crap, I’m flying,” Dean said. “Now let me down. Let me down now.”

Sam floated up next him. “You’re fine, it’s fine.”

“No, Sam, no it’s not,” Dean said in a panic. “If we were meant to fly, we’d have wings.”

“Just calm down, close your eyes, and take ahold of my leg or something and we’ll be back on solid ground before you know it,” Sam rationalized. Dean nodded, grabbed ahold of Sam and shut his eyes.

“He doesn’t like flying,” Sam explained to Sora and the rest of the gang.

“Then how does he fly the Gummi ship?” Goofy asked, scratching his head.

“I can hear you, you know. It’s different,” Dean replied, eyes still shut. “It’s not a plane and you’re not going to crash.”

Dean lost track of time how long they flew, but soon he heard Sam gasp and say, “Isn’t that Big Ben?”

Dean’s eyes opened to find himself approaching a big clock tower, one that he knew from TV shows and movies to be Big Ben, the one in London. “Are we… on Earth?”

“I guess it must be a different version of Earth,” Sam replied.

Dean’s eyes opened wide. “This is an amazing view. Freaking scary, but amazing.” His hand let go of Sam’s foot as they neared the clock tower and he was flying on his own for the first time since they left the pirate ship. The night was clear and the windows of London below had soft artificial light pouring out of them. Dean could see the stars clearly and the moon was a big round silver disc in the sky. The four faces of the clock had their own comforting glow to them, calming Dean’s nerves about flying a bit.

“So what’s with the clock tower?” Donald asked.

“I guess we’ll have to take a look,” Sam replied. He flew up to one of the faces, the time clearly displayed as midnight with each hand on the big number twelve.

Dean flew around to one of the other faces while Sora went the other direction. Looking at the clock face, trying to ignore the fact that he was freaking in midair, Dean scrutinized the face. “Hey Sora, what does that clock say?”

“Midnight,” Sora yelled back.

Dean flew close to the face, where the hour hand was still at midnight, but the minute hand was pointed at the nine. “This one isn’t right.”

Sam and Sora flew up behind him. “Hmmm that’s weird,” Sora said.

“Think this is what Tinker Bell meant?” Sam asked.

“Must be,” Dean replied.

“Maybe we should turn it the correct time, a-hyuck,” Goofy suggested.

Bravura appeared in Dean’s hand in a column of light. Then he hit the minute hand of Big Ben. The minute hand moved up to the ten.

“Whoa, Dean, you can’t hit Big Ben,” Sam protested, grabbing part of Bravura to stop the hunter from landing another hit.

“It’s not Big Ben,” Dean replied. “It’s alternate Big Ben. Maybe not even a Big Ben.”

“But it might be the only Big Ben left,” Sam replied.

Just then, the minute hand moved again, this time to the eleven. Sam turned in surprise, seeing Sora with his Keyblade next to the minute hand. The boy swung again, lining up the minute hand with the hour hand.

At the three on the clock face, a Keyhole appeared.

“Look!” Donald exclaimed.

“So there was something at the tower,” Peter said, coming up next to them. He’d been taking care of Wendy as she woke up. It was the first time Dean had really registered that the elfish boy was still here.

Sora pointed his Keyblade at the Keyhole. A white beam of light emanated from the tip and into the Keyhole. A click was heard and the entire face of the clock glowed white. When it tapered off, the Keyhole was gone.

Tinker Bell flew up with some little piece of something that had fallen from the Keyhole. She dropped it into Peter’s hand.

“What’s this?” he asked, inspecting in. “Eh, doesn’t look interesting. Do you want it?” He held it out to Sora, who nodded once he saw that it was Gummi. Then Peter flew off again, where Dean saw that he was talking to Wendy, who looked a little sad.

“So I guess we better get that to Cid?” Sam asked, pointing at the Gummi.

Sora examined it. “Yeah, it looks important.”

Dean took it from Sora. “It’s a Navi-G piece.” The group looked at him blankly. “It’s for navigation, going to new worlds.”

“Oh,” they all said at once.

“Well, I guess we go back to town now,” Donald said.

Dean paused. “Where’s my baby?”

“We have your ship,” Donald said.

“We stole it back when we snuck on board,” Goofy explained.

“Alright,” Sam said. “Lead the way.”

 

Dean plopped the Gummi on the front counter in front of Cid. “You know how to install this better than me. Can you do it?”

Cid looked at the Gummi. “Yeah, I can install it. I’ll be back before you know it.”

The group waited there a little while.

“Hollow Bastion…” Sora trailed off. “That’s where we need to go.”

“What do you think we’ll find there?” Sam asked. “With a name like that…”

“It can’t be good,” Dean finished.

Sora sighed. “What choice do we have? Riku and Kairi are there. And so is Castiel.”

“Maleficent is there too,” Sam reminded him.

Goofy scratched his head. “We gotta go there eventually.”

Sora nodded. “It’s the only way to stop whatever’s going on.”

Dean crossed his arms. “I know. But we should be careful.”

“Of course,” Donald said.

The group silenced as they caught sight of Cid walking back towards them.

“Alright, you’re good to go. I installed the Gummi and pulled an extra from my stash for the other one,” Cid started.

“I’ll pay you back for that,” Dean said.

Cid held a hand up. “Don’t sweat it. You’ve done enough.” His eyes went back and forth from the Winchesters to Sora’s gang. “I couldn’t help but to overhear. Hollow Bastion, huh?”

Dean nodded.

“That place is crawling with Heartless. I don’t suggest going there,” Cid said.

“We have to,” Sora said. “If we want to end this.”

Cid sighed. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”


	8. Chapter 8

Dean’s skin crawled the moment he set foot on Hollow Bastion. Everything about this place was unnatural. They were in this huge valley with waterfalls all around them. Only instead of the water falling, the water rose from the ground to the sky. Floating rock platforms were everywhere, creating a broken path up to the horizon where Dean could see a stone archway, and further off, a huge castle with curved and winding towers. It was a mishmash of different architectural styles, a more classic medieval look and a more modern steampunk style. On the front of it was a huge Heartless insignia, the heart with an X through it found on many of the Heartless.

“Gwarsh, look at that!” Goofy said.

Sora stepped forward, his face pensive. “I know this place….”

“Hmmm, that’s strange,” Goofy said.

“I wonder why… I feel this warmth inside” –Sora placed his hand on his heart- “right here.”

“Aw, you’re just hungry,” Donald said, brushing him off.

“Or you have heartburn,” Dean added.

Sora turned angrily toward them. “Hey, I’m serious!”

Just then, a roar sounded out, louder than the water. It echoed though the valley, across the water and off the walls.

“Come on, let’s go,” Sam said, jumping to the floating rock just above them.

Dean followed, his sense of dread growing as he placed a foot on the water around them and it didn’t sink, as though the water were a hard surface just like wood or stone. This place was messed up and Dean wondered not for the first time if this was a mistake. But it was too late now.

Dean caught a glimpse of the origination of the roar: a huge werewolf-like creature with a flowing royal purple cape. The werewolf stood on one of the floating rock platforms looking up at the stone platform with an arch on it. Standing there was Riku, his silver hair unmistakable. Their conversation drifted over to the group as they made their way across the floating rocks.

“No vessel, no help from the Heartless… so tell me, how’d you get here?” Riku asked.

“I simply believed. Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost,” the werewolf said, his voice deeper and huskier. “I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will take her back!”

“Take her, if you can,” Riku challenged.

Another roar emanated from the werewolf and the group was in time to see the werewolf lunge at Riku, and to see Riku strike back at the werewolf, Riku’s bat-like blade slashing deep across the werewolf. The werewolf sunk to the ground, his breathing labored.

Sora jumped onto the platform with the arch, Donald and Goofy right behind him. Sam and Dean were about to join them when Castiel appeared in front of them in a flurry of wings. His black wings spread, blocking the Winchesters from joining the others. Castiel’s eyes dared them to test Cas’s strength. They could just barely see though the angel’s wings as to what was happening on the platform.

“Stop!” Sora’s voice rang out.

“So you’ve finally made it,” Riku said. “About time. I’ve been waiting for you. We’ve always been rivals, haven’t we?” You’ve always pushed me as I’ve always pushed you.”

“Riku…” Sora said, almost as if meeting his friend here face to face was hurting him.

“But it all ends here,” Riku said, his voice hardening. “There can’t be two Keyblade masters. It will only accept one.”

“What are you talking about?” Sora demanded.

“Let the Keyblade choose…” –Riku held out his hand- “its true master.”

Suddenly, Sora’s Keyblade appeared in Sora’s hand. It began tugging itself away from Sora and toward Riku and even though Sora grabbed it with both hands, the Keyblade disappeared into light and reappeared into Riku’s outstretched hand.

Riku looked at it in his hand, a smirk across his face as well wonder and amusement. “Maleficent was right. You don’t have what it takes to save Kairi. It’s up to me. Only a Keyblade master can open the secret door” - Riku held up the Keyblade – “and change the world.”

“But that’s impossible. How did this happen?” Sora said angrily. He pointed to himself. “I’m the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!”

Riku scoffed. “You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part’s over now. Here, go play hero with this.” Riku pulled out a wooden play sword and tossed it onto the ground in front of Sora. Then the silver haired boy turned and left.

Sora kneeled, the weight of his emotions too much for him.

Donald’s eyes saddened. “Goofy. Let’s go. We have to remember our mission.”

Goofy looked back at Sora. “Oh! Well, I know the King told us to follow the Kingdom Key and all… But…” He slowly moved forward.

“Guys, wait!” Sam called out.

Castiel’s cold eyes turned on the younger Winchester. He held out a hand and a mysterious force forced Sam to his knees.

“Sorry, Sora,” Donald said. The duck looked at Sam and Dean. “Sorry.” Then they were gone, off to find Riku.

“You son of a bitch, Cas,” Dean growled. “Stop it.” He moved to shove the angel, but suddenly he was gone with the flap if his wings and Dean was left shoving empty air.

Sam groaned from the ground before slowly getting up.

“You alright?” Dean asked.

Sam nodded, jumping to the next platform with Dean on his tail. Sam took one look at the werewolf and pulled out Archfiend, pointing it at him. The werewolf looked up at Sam, its blue eyes seeming alarmingly human, but Sam didn’t move Archfiend. The werewolf growled little bit, and attempted to get to its feet. “Don’t move,” Sam ordered.

Dean squatted next to Sora.

“I don’t understand,” Sora whispered.

“Hey, you gotta pick yourself up,” Dean said. “You came here to find Kairi. You can’t just give up now. Sam and I – we’re going to stick by you.”

Sora nodded. “Okay. Okay. I’ll fight. I came here to find someone very important to me. I can’t give up now.” Sora’s hand wrapped around the wooden sword as he pulled himself up to his feet. He looked back at the werewolf creature on the ground. “Let him go.”

Sam glanced at Dean, his eyes asking if he should.

The werewolf rumbled, stirring, holding himself up on all four of his paws. “You came to find someone. I came for that too. I came to fight for Belle. And though I am on my own, I will fight. I won’t leave without her.”

“I’m Sora,” the boy said. “This is Sam and Dean.” He stepped towards the werewolf, blocking Sam from getting to the creature.

“People on my world called me the Beast,” he said, getting to his feet, his full height and features becoming clear. The Beast was taller than Sam and practically towered over Dean. He had a flowing royal purple cape with dark navy pants. His fur was brown and thick with darker brown hair in a line down the back of his head like a mane. Two dark curved horns grew out of his head. His big claws seemed rather menacing as did his long white fangs. His bushy tail twitched.

“You’re hurt,” Sora commented.

“It’s nothing,” the Beast replied. “Belle is my first priority.”

Sam lowered Archfiend. “We’ll find Belle and we’ll find Kairi. We’ll save Cas and Riku. We’ll do it together.”

The Beast nodded and slowly walked forward, past Sora and the Winchesters, and toward the castle.

 

After discovering the doors to the castle were shut down as they ran on some form of electricity, the group went down under the castle through a series of tunnels in order to turn it back on and open the door. During which, the group encountered numerous Heartless and discovered that without his Keyblade, Sora wasn’t able to fight on his own. They took turns being his battle partner in order to protect him.

With the electricity back on, Sora and the Winchesters and Beast stood in front of the large doors in the small courtyard. They opened and the group walked inside.

The entrance hall of the castle was large with a fountain between the two staircases where there was a large open area. There were big columns around the room with a big low light chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

The group’s feet and the sound of the fountain were the only things to be heard in the hall.

“Be on your guard,” the Beast rumbled. “They’re close, I can feel it. Are you ready for them?” He lifted his nose to air, then suddenly said, “Belle?”

Before anyone could say anything, the Beast turned the other way, roaring. Sam caught a flash of yellow and blackness before the doors behind the Beast shut, locking the Beast out.

Riku’s voice made them all turn back around. “Quit while you can.” Riku stood in the hall in front of the fountain. Donald and Goofy were next to him. Castiel stood at the top of the stairs, silently watching the scene unfold.

“No,” Sora said forcefully. “Not without Kairi.”

Riku glowed with dark power, his yellow and black outfit shifting to a more sinister one. It was a deep blue with red undertones as though veins ran through it, almost as though the suit was made out of muscle. He wore boots and three belts on his waist, two of them forming an X. He had an off-white cloth wrapped around his waist that opened in the front. It faded into a light purple at the ripped bottom. “The darkness will destroy you.”

"You’re wrong, Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can’t touch my heart. My heart will stay with my friends. It’ll never die!” Sora declared.

Riku let out a laugh. “Really? Well, we’ll just see about that!” Then Riku let out a pulse of darkness, immobilizing Sora and the Winchesters. He thrust out an arm, a dark orb of dark energy gathering before shooting out at Sora.

Just as the orb was about to hit Sora, Goofy stepped in, blocking the dark energy with his shield. Dean let out a sigh of relief as the ability to move was given back.

“Sora ain’t gonna go anywhere!” Goofy said.

“You’d betray your King?” Riku accused.

“Not on your life!” Goofy replied quickly. “But I’m not gonna betray Sora either, ‘cause he’s become one of my best buddies after all we’ve been through together!” His eyes looked at Donald. “See ya later, Donald! Could ya tell the King I’m really sorry?”

Donald ran across the hall, his webbed feet pattering on the tile. “Hold on, Goofy! We’ll tell him together!” He stood in front of Sora and Goofy. “Well, you know…. All for one and one for all.”

Goofy nodded. “I guess you’re stuck with us, Sora.”

“Thanks a lot… Donald, Goofy,” Sora said sadly.

“How will you fight without a weapon?” Riku asked, obviously finding this exchange more and more amusing.

Sora’s eyes traveled from Donald and Sam on his right to Goofy and Dean on his left. Dean gave Sora a nod. Then Sora fixed his eyes on his childhood friend. “I know now that I don’t need the Keyblade. I’ve got a better weapon.” He placed his hand on his chest. “My heart.”

Dean wanted to laugh, just like Riku was doing now, but he held it in. He knew that all of this might sound ridiculous, but over the years with his brother and all the crap they’ve gone through, he knew that it was only his strength of heart and his love for his brother and the people he cared about that got them this far. Even though it was a total chick flick thing to say, Dean knew its truth.

“Your heart? What good will that weak little thing do for you?” Riku asked, obviously skeptical. Sora’s Keyblade appeared in Riku's hand.

“Although my heart may be weak, it’s not alone,” he said, gesturing to the people next to him. “It’s grown with each new experience, and it’s found a home with all the friends I’ve made. I’ve become a part of their heart just as they’ve become a part of mine.” Sora paused, closing his eyes. “And if they think of them now and then… if they don’t forget me…” –his eyes opened- “then our hearts will be one.” He readied his wooden sword, cuing the others to ready their weapons. Donald pulled out his wand and Goofy hid behind his shield. Archfiend appeared in a column of darkness in Sam’s hand. Bravura formed in a flash of light in Dean’s hand.

“I don’t need a weapon,” Sora continued. “My friends are my power!”

Riku looked down at Sora’s Keyblade in shock as it started glowing in his hand before completely disappearing. “Huh?” Riku looked at his empty hand in shock.

The wooden sword that Sora held disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by Sora’s Keyblade.

Castiel disappeared right then, the flapping of his wings breaking the silence.

“Cas, you bastard, get back here!” Dean yelled.

Riku glared at Sora, his bat-like blade materializing in his hand as he charged at Sora.

Sora charged at him, followed by his friends. Their blades met in the middle, before Riku disappeared, moving fast that it seemed as though he teleported. Riku was fast, dodging fireballs and landing hits left and right.

Dean saw Sora take a hit from behind and Donald swiped at Riku right before he disappeared. Dean whipped out Bravura in time to block another one of Riku’s attacks, before trying to pin down a pattern for the fighter. Dean moved next to Sam and they fought back to back, all their sides covered.

Donald and Goofy struggled as Donald couldn’t seem to take a hit and Goofy was too slow to dodge most of Riku’s attacks. They were knocked out before Dean could say pizza.

Sora was alone on the field without Donald or Goofy to help him and because of that, Riku targeted the young Keyblade wielder more.

“Come on,” Dean said, dragging Sam over to Sora.

“Fire!” Sam yelled. A fire ball exploded out of Archfiend, hitting Riku in the chest as he was about to bring his blade down on Sora’s exposed back.

Dean stood between Sora and Riku as Sam finished his spell and stood next to his brother.

Riku grimaced and charged, his blade poised to slash through both of the Winchesters. But then Sora intercepted Riku, using the Winchesters as cover to go around and knock Riku off balance. Riku tumbled across the tile floor, hitting on of the tall stone statues in the entrance hall, the breath knocked out of his lungs. The hit reverted him to his yellow and black outfit. He unsteadily got to his feet, ran off through the door at the top of stairs, and disappeared.

The door behind the group opened and the Beast lumbered back in. “So, your heart won this battle.”

Sora nodded.

“There will be more battles to come,” the Beast said.

“We’re ready,” Dean replied.

 

The castle of Hollow Bastion was big and cold and empty. When they stumbled upon the library, Sam went crazy. He scoured the library high and low and when he realized there were some books in the wrong places, he spent about thirty minutes putting them all back into place.

“Look at all of this knowledge!” Sam said as he flipped through book and read the spines of the books. “This is incredible.”

“You are very much like Belle,” the Beast commented. “She loves books too.”

Sora and Dean took to analyzing the puzzle that was the door that Riku disappeared through. It had the Heartless insignia on it, though it somehow seemed incomplete. Sam pointed out that one of the books said that the castle was built by this guy named Ansem and to stop people from entering unwanted parts, he built passageways and installed puzzles with puzzle pieces in order to stop them from entering where they should not go.

“Ansem?” Goofy said. “Where have I heard that before?” He scratched his head.

“I know!” Donald exclaimed. “Sora, those reports!”

“Oh, right!” Sora said. He pulled out some pieces of paper and handed it to Sam. “We’ve found these scattered across worlds. They’re by that Ansem guy.”

Sam took the papers and quickly skimmed them. “They’re scientific reports… about the Heartless. It’s a ton of observations and documentations of the Heartless.”

“Sounds like this Ansem guy is bad news,” Dean said.

“I don’t know, Dean,” Sam replied. “I think he was just a scientist.”

“But what scientist locks his doors unless he’s working on something bad?” Dean asked. “And anyone who’s involved with Heartless must be bad news.”

Sora frowned. “We don’t know enough. We’ll just have to forget about Ansem and work on finding those puzzle pieces.”

So Sora and Dean scoured the castle for the puzzle pieces. And after finding them all, the mysterious door opened. Beyond there, it was a maze of passageways and lifts and hordes of Heartless. There were so many wrong turns that the group took and the only thing keeping them going was the knowledge that they had people who were counting on them to reach them.

Sora had to save Kairi and hope that Riku could be redeemed and talked to. Sam and Dean had to release Cas from Maleficent’s control. The Beast had to free Belle.

None of them were going to leave until they got what they came for.

As they got closer and closer to the top of the castle, more and more Heartless started to appear. They knew they were getting close when they were too tired to continue and more Heartless just started to appear. They plopped down in a round-ish room after they finished a long elevator ride that was chock full of Heartless. They were all panting and nursing their wounds.

“We’re going to be dead by the time we get there,” Dean said, holding an injured arm.

“They’re beating the crap out of us,” Sam agreed.

“We have to keep going, though,” Sora said. “We have to find everyone.”

The Beast was the only one standing and he was near the balcony, staring up at the part of the castle they had yet to climb. “I believe we will get there.”

“That’s great, Beastie,” Dean said, to which the Beast growled. “Can I call you you ‘Beastie’?”

“No,” the Beast growled. “You may not.”

“Okay, okay,” Dean said, holding his uninjured arm up in surrender.

“How long can we keep this up?” Goofy asked, setting his shield down beside him.

“We have to stay strong,” Sora replied. “We’re almost there. I can feel it.”

Donald passed out things from the camping set he’d been carrying around that was filled with all these things that made them feel instantly better.

Dean’s arm wasn’t as sore and the cuts were all patched up. Sam had a wrap on his leg and was walking on it okay. Donald’s feathers were patched up and Goofy’s head was feeling better. Sora denied he was hurt, but he took some supplies anyway and he started to look less worn than before. Even the Beast’s injuries were starting to heal.

“Is everyone ready?” the Beast asked.

Reluctantly, everyone nodded and willed themselves to get up and climb up the last few flights up to the top of the castle.

 

The last outside platform was from Hell, in Dean’s expert opinion. There were so many Heartless crawling about, both strong and weak, that the group began to wear out minutes into the battle, even as they battled and moved their way up to a doorway that seemed to lead to the uppermost floors of the castle.

The group finally made their way to the top, with Beast covering their backs. Sam, Dean, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were inside the castle’s chapel when the doors shut behind them, locking the Beast out. The Beast’s roars of anger permeated through the castle walls, though significantly dulled.

Sora knocked on the large chapel doors. “Beast! We’ll find a way to unlock it! I promise!” Sora shouted.

Sam and Dean were more focused on the room and the person at the end of it. The castle chapel was dark, illuminated only by green torches and some light shining down from a stain glass window. The narrow walls of the chapel opened up to create a circular room, probably the altar, at the end. On the wall right at the altar was a huge intricate golden Heartless symbol. The entire chapel had a medieval flare to it with stone arches and statues and stained glass. Inside here, the temperature dropped a couple degrees, plunging them into what felt like an ice age.

At the very end of the chapel, obscured in shadows, was a figure. “I’m afraid you’re too late,” Castial’s voice rumbled. The angel stepped into the light. “Soon the final Keyhole will be unsealed. This world will be plunged into darkness. You cannot stop it.”

Dean summoned Bravura. “I’m not gonna let that happen, Cas. None of us are.”

The others behind him quickly pulled out their weapons.

“I am giving you a chance to save yourselves. I suggest you take it,” Cas replied.

“We can’t do that, Cas,” Sam said.

Castiel spread his huge dark wings. “Then you will perish here.”

The chapel was plunged into darkness; the only things visible were the fiery green torches on the walls. No one could even see their hand in front of their faces, and while the green fire was visible, the darkness swallowed up any light they emitted.

“Stay together!” Dean ordered. He felt someone’s hot breath near him.

“Right here, Dean,” Sam’s voice said.

Suddenly they heard Donald’s cries of pain.

“Quick, think,” Sam said. “We need to see.”

“I got it, cast thunder,” Dean said.

“Thunder?” Sam asked.

“Just do it,” Dean ordered, just as Goofy let out his own cry of pain.

Sam raised Archfiend in the darkness, calling out, “Thunder!”

Lightning bolts rained down across the chapel. They heard Cas cry out and suddenly the inky blackness was gone.

Dean ran up to Cas, slashing Bravura across the angel’s chest and knocking him away. He ran up to where Cas was laying, pointing Bravura at the downed angel. He could hear Sam and Sora behind him. If Donald and Goofy weren’t here, Dean knew that Cas had knocked them out.

Castiel looked up them from his spot on the ground, glaring at them. “You have not won.” Then he spread his wings and shot up out of the reach of Sora and the Winchesters. The air shimmered around him, and Cas began to give off a blue aura. Out of the ceiling, meteors rained down on them.

Dean barely dodged a huge one as he rolled to the side, but Sam wasn’t so lucky. Dean saw his younger brother get knocked out, the meteor forcing him to the ground before disappearing in a puff of magical dust.

The meteors stopped. Dean caught a glimpse of Sora getting to his feet, the boy obviously injured.

“Sam!” Dean yelled, rushing to his brother’s side. He put two fingers up to his brother’s throat, checking for a pulse. It was there, thank God, and Dean looked up in time to see Castiel honing in on Sora with his silver angel blade. Sora was staggering though determination still shone in his eyes.

Castiel struck Sora and the Keyblade wielder tumbled to the floor, landing a few feet away, his Keyblade skittering away from him out of his grasp. The angel moved slowly forward, his silver blade now in a stabbing position.

Dean got to his feet, moving behind Cas to take advantage of a blind spot. The angel sensed the Winchester at the last moment, whirling around, but it was too late.

Bravura went right through the angel’s torso and Castiel let out a cry of pain that hurt Dean’s ears.

“I’m sorry, Cas,” Dean said as he pulled out his Keyblade and stepped back, watching the angel’s demise.

Castiel’s face and body were contorted in pain, and then the angel started to emit a strange purple light. His body faded, leaving only the little floating purple orb in the center of the room.

Dean dropped to his knees. Bravura clattered to the ground and disappeared.

Sora collapsed completely on the floor in exhaustion, breathing heavy. After a few moments of just lying there, Sora got up and pulled out another kit. He revived Donald and Goofy before going next to Sam and reviving the Winchester brother.

Sam groaned and sat up. His head hurt and his vision had black spots dotting it. “What happened?”

“Dean defeated Castiel,” Sora replied in low tones, glancing over his shoulder. Dean still hadn’t stirred.

Sam’s eyes traveled to Dean. Then his eyes focused on the floating purple orb. “What’s that?”

Sora shrugged. “We might just have to find out.”

Finally Dean stood up, walking over to his brother and Sora. “How are you?” he asked.

“Fine,” Sam replied. “A little bruised, but I’m fine.”

Dean looked as though he wanted to argue, but in the end he said nothing. Instead he just nodded and held out his hand to Sora who placed some supplies in his hand.

After a few minutes of resting and healing, the group agreed to inspect the mysterious purple orb. As soon as Dean touched it, he was sucked in and disappeared. The others followed suit, disappearing into the portal and onto the other side, into the unknown.


	9. Chapter 9

The portal led to a circular tower somewhere in the castle. It was all stone and had thick black thorny vines climbing all of the walls. Windows that were cut into the stone filtered light in.

In the center of the room was Castiel and Maleficent. The angel was on his hands and knees, his wings folded up behind him. He looked worn out and weak. His face was tilted up, his eyes looking at Maleficent with fear.

Maleficent stood with her back to Dean and the others. Her voice was cold when she spoke. “You insufferable fool! You have failed me.”

The angel said nothing; his only response was to hang his head.

Maleficent struck him with her staff and he took it, his blood splashing onto the stones. She placed the tip of her staff on his chest. “Now you will give me back what is mine.”

A scream tore from Castiel as a green glow lit up the orb on Maleficent’s staff. His black wings shattered behind him, the dark shadows slinking back to Maleficent. When she was done, Castiel was lying lifeless on the ground.

“You bitch! What did you do to him?” Dean yelled, his voice echoing off the stone tower walls.

Maleficent turned around, her eyes catching the shocked faces of the group. “It was his just desserts for failing me.”

Just then a dark portal appeared and from it emerged Riku, back in his blue suit. But when Riku spoke, his voice sounded different, deeper, almost as if another voice spoke with him when he talked. “Do you need some help?”

“Riku!” Sora yelled.

Donald’s eyes focused on what was in Riku’s hand. “Is that–”

“Yes,” Riku said, cutting off the duck. “A Keyblade.” He held the key out in front of him. It had a red handle and a black key. Its teeth seemed to form an incomplete open heart. “But unlike yours, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people’s hearts. Allow me to demonstrate.” Riku turned and thrust the Keyblade into Maleficent. Maleficent gasped as the Keyblade went through her. “Behold! Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!”

Riku pulled the Keyblade out, backing away slowly and fading out of the room. The boy was gone.

The group gaped at Maleficent. She was examining her hands as she started to glow an eerie green. “This is it!” she cried. “This power! Darkness… the true darkness!” She cackled as flames engulfed her. They group lost sight of her as the flames consumed her and grew larger and larger with each passing second. When the flames died down, in front of them stood a huge black dragon, green flames spewing from its jaws. Its malicious yellow eyes locked onto the group and roared.

“Okay, okay, real dragon,” Dean said. “Real dragon.” His eyes spotted Castiel lying on the ground. “Okay, Sam, get Cas and find a safe place to stash him. We’ll distract the overgrown lizard.” Bravura appeared in his hands and Dean could hear the others getting out their own weapons.

Sam nodded. “Cover me.”

“You call that a dragon?” Dean yelled. “You’re all smoke and no fire!”

Maleficent’s narrowed eyes focused on Dean. She lifted a huge claw up.

“Split up!” Dean ordered, moving out of the way. “Sam, go!”

The group moved out of the way just as Maleficent’s claw came down, sending a shockwave through the tower floor. Sam bolted toward Castiel, the angel unconscious near the dragon’s tail.

Maleficent moved her head to look at Sam, but a blizzard blast from Donald made her forget about the younger Winchester brother and focus more on the ones who were attacking her. She let out another burst of green fire, sending Donald running away with his tail feathers smoking.

Dean ran up to the dragon, dodging flames as he tried to keep Maleficent’s attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sam carrying Castiel into a nook created by the thorns, perfectly out of reach of Maleficent’s gaze and attacks. He jumped up, Bravura hitting her face, though most of his blade glanced off her hardened scales.

“We need a plan, Dean,” Sora said as he watched Maleficent rear up on her hind legs.

“Move!” Dean yelled, getting as far away from the dragon as possible.

 When Maleficent hit the ground, the whole tower shook. Everyone stumbled as the shockwave passed over them, all unable to escape it. Maleficent roared.

Dean pulled himself to his feet. His eyes glanced over the vines, the roars and crackling of the flames fading from his mind. He was snapped back into focus at the sound of Sam’s voice.

“Dean, plan!” Sam yelled, making his way over to his brother.

“The vines,” Dean said.

Sam faltered. “What?”

“The vines,” Dean said quickly. “The shockwaves can’t reach us there.”

“It’s a start,” Sam supposed.

“Grab Sora and the others. I’ll keep the gecko occupied.” Dean took off toward Maleficent again. He could hear Sam in the background telling Sora, Donald, and Goofy to get up on the vines. Dean struck Maleficent’s side and her attention was focused back on the hunter.

Dean dodged the swipe of a claw, but got hit with her long tail. He crashed into the stone wall, his breath knocked clean out of him. Bravura disappeared. As Maleficent stalked toward him, Sora shouted: “Hey, you big lug!”

Maleficent’s dragon ears perked up and her head turned to look at Sam, Sora, Donald, and Goofy on top of some of the vines along the castle’s walls. She moved toward them, her wings fanning out.

Magic blasts of ice and fire shot toward Maleficent but they bounced off of her scales. Goofy’s shield sliced the air towards her, hitting the dragon’s nose and rebounding back to Goofy like a boomerang.

The dragon bared her teeth and snarled, moving quickly towards the new pests. She got up on her hind legs and leaned herself on the wall, her claws digging into the stone. Her fangs glinted in the light and she snapped at Sam, Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

Dean could hear the teeth coming together as she continued to get nothing but empty air. He hoped that it stayed that way. The hunter dragged himself to his feet, ignoring the dark spots dancing across his vision and the soreness in his muscles that screamed for him to stop. His eyes caught Sam’s as his brother dashed across the think vines covering the tower walls. The group was trying to separate and get away from the dragon, but Maleficent was constantly finding ways to push them back together, as though she was simply playing with her food.

Dean ran over to Maleficent, avoiding the swings of her tail. He grasped onto one of the spines sticking out of her back that ran up her back. He used those to get all way up to her neck, while Maleficent was too distracted with a claw wrapped around Sora to notice the little nuisance on her back.

Dean plunged Bravura into Maleficent’s back and as she roared in pain, Sam took a daring leap off of the vines, Archfiend poised to strike. Sam’s blade pierced her soft underbelly and Maleficent collapsed. Dean grunted with the impact of the fall, his body crushed between the ground and Maleficent’s dragon body. He pulled himself out from under her.

“Heal!” both Donald and Sora’s voices rang out in the tower.

Suddenly, Dean felt better. His muscles were less sore and his lungs less crushed. He saw the group climb down from the vines and meet him. Sam came into view as Dean stood up.

Maleficent’s dragon corpse lay before them.

“We did it, guys,” Sora breathed.

The body before them began to burn itself up in a green fire, leaving nothing but Maleficent’s cloak on the ground. The vines along the walls went the same way, up in green flames, leaving the walls bare. A dark portal began to form on the other side of the tower and from it Riku stepped out.

“How ironic,” Riku said. “She was just another puppet after all.”

“What?” Donald quacked.

“The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning,” Riku explained. “She failed to notice the darkness eating away at her.” He rubbed the cloak with his foot into the ground, and the cloak slowly faded away. “A fitting end for such a fool.” He gave the group a sly smile and backed up into the portal again.

“Riku!” Sora called out, but he was already gone.

Dean ran over to where Cas was hidden, but was no longer since the vines disappeared. The angel was lying on the ground, his eyes shut. “Cas, Cas, speak to me, buddy.”

Castiel’s eyes opened, though just barely. “Dean?”

“Cas, we’re gonna get you out of here,” Dean said, kneeling down beside the fallen angel.

“Not yet,” Castiel said, his voice low and weak. “The princesses are here. Kairi is here. And Riku” – the angel shut his eyes for a moment and let out a sigh- “Riku is not himself.”

"No kidding,” Dean replied. “The kid basically just stabbed someone and turned her into a dragon. The kid’s nutso.”

Castiel shook his head. “No, Dean, another dark force has taken Riku over. Ever since coming back from Never Land…” The angel locked eyes with Dean. “You must stop him.”

“We will, Cas,” Dean promised.

Castiel simply nodded in reply.

Dean pulled Castiel up, draping an arm around his shoulder and practically dragging the angel forward. “A little help here?” he grunted.

Sam rushed forward, mirroring how Dean held Castiel up. “He’s heavy for such a skinny guy.”

“Now what?” Donald asked.

“We need to find the princesses and Riku,” Dean replied. “Castiel said that they were here somewhere.”

The group went through the same portal that got them there and suddenly they were back in the castle chapel. A corridor had appeared where there was just solid brick wall before. Sam and Dean laid Castiel down in the chapel, propping him up against a wall.

“Sorry, Cas,” Dean said. “You gotta stay here until we get back.”

The angel didn’t reply. He had slipped back into unconsciousness.

“Think he’ll be alright here?” Dean asked, his gaze betraying his worry for the defenseless angel.

“He’ll have to be,” Sam replied. “Whatever is waiting for us inside there” – his eyes flicked over to the mysterious corridor – “won’t be safe for him if we get drawn into a fight.”

Dean nodded. He looked around at the group. “Is everyone ready?”

Sora nodded. “Let’s go.”

 

The grand hall was just as the name suggested: grand. It was a huge room with eerie lighting and high ceilings. From the entrance the group could see the Heartless theme that Maleficent had modeled it with. The carpet, for instance, was a huge red and black Heartless insignia on a dark blue background. Red carpeting surrounded it and continued on up into another part of the grand hall.

Lining the carpet were six huge torches that burned blue fire. Along with that were six stasis chambers where six princesses were sleeping. Further into the hall were stairs and even from the entrance the group could see a huge heart-shaped portal. Overall, the hall was elegant with gold linings and graceful arches, but it was obvious that the darkness was at its closest here.

Dean tapped on Jasmine's glass casing, in which she was peacefully sleeping. She didn't stir. "This is some twisted crap going on," he said, inspecting another princess in a fluffy yellow ball gown.

"This place give me the chills," Donald said.

Sora's eyes were on the big multi-colored heart-shaped portal. He started running towards it, causing the rest of the group to run after him. Donald and Dean were right behind Sora, but Sam and Goofy trailed a bit further back. As they ran up the stairs and onto the platform where the portal was, a barrier caught Sam and Goofy, trapping them on the outside.

Dean turned around at Sam's grunt at being caught by the barrier. "Sam!"

But Sora didn't notice. His eyes were only for Kairi. She was lying on the floor of the platform, almost looking as though she were sleeping. He knelt beside her, gently picking her head off the floor. "Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!"

Another voice made them all turn their heads. "It's no use. That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up." It was Riku, wearing that strange suit. He was calmly sitting on a golden tube next to the swirling portal.

"What? You… you're not Riku," Sora said as he got to his feet.

Riku slid off of the tube and onto the steps leading to the portal. "The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last princess sleeps."

Dean's head began turning as he made the connection between Riku's words and Kairi's missing heart. "Kairi's a princess?" he blurted skeptically.

"Yes," he replied, his eyes still on Sora. "And without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened."

Sora's fists clenched. "Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!"

"But first," Riku said as he pointed his Keyblade at Sora, "you must give the princess back her heart."

Sora grasped his chest as his face contorted in pain. He fell to his knees.

"Sora!" Donald cried.

"What's happening?" Dean asked, still at the very edge of the barrier, but he was slowly inching his way over so as not to alert Riku.

"Don't you see yet? The princess's heart is responding. It has been there are all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!" Riku said.

"Kairi…" Sora trailed off, his mind processing. "Kairi's inside me?"

"I know all there is to know," Riku declared.

"Tell me," Sora said. "Who are you?"

Riku spread his arms out. "It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness."

Donald chose that moment to charge at Riku, but Riku swiftly tossed Donald out of the barrier with a flick of his Keyblade.

"So, I shall release you now, Princess," Riku said, his voice echoing throughout the chamber. He raised the Keyblade he held. "Complete the Keyhole with your power. Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!"

Dean started running over as soon as he saw what was about to unfold, but before he could do anything, Sora looked up, his Keyblade appearing in a sheen of light. Sora brought his Keyblade up in time to block Riku's. They were locked like that for a couple of seconds.

"Forget it," Sora snarled, breaking the lock and sending Riku stumbling a bit. "There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!"

Riku stood there glaring for a few seconds. "If that's the way you want it, then so be it."

"Get Kairi out of here," Sora ordered, not taking his blue eyes off of Riku.

"But–" Dean started to protest.

"Please," Sora said as he blocked another of Riku's blows. "I'll cover you."

Dean picked Kairi up and headed toward the barrier. "I can't step out there," he told Sam who was standing on the other side. "Or I'll be locked out."

"Pass her through," Sam replied, holding out his arms.

Dean passed Kairi's body through the barrier, which she easily slid out of. It seemed as though Riku didn't care what happened to her body as long as her heart was his. As soon as Kairi was safely in Sam's arms, Dean turned around to face the fight, summoning Bravura in his hand.

Sora was dodging many of Riku’s attacks, but the boy was practically a lightning storm personified. His attacks were swift and relentless. Dark aura radiated off of him and it shown in every attack. Riku would strike or hit the ground with his Keyblade and a column of darkness would flare up from the ground. A strike hit Sora from behind and the boy tumbled to the ground. Like a bird of prey, Riku swooped in for the kill.

Dean sprinted over, putting himself between Sora and Riku with his Keyblade held out front. “Not so fast,” Dean grunted. “You’re not fighting fair. It’s time to even the odds.”

Sora pulled himself to his feet. “Thanks.”

Riku scowled and pulled back. “Fine.” Then he was gone. A moment later, too fast for even Dean to register, Dean was sent flying across the platform, skidding on the floor and hitting a metal computer panel on the platform. “I guess I’ll take care of you first.”

“Dean!” Sam called from the other side of the barrier.

Dean partially picked himself up, using his hands to support him. The rest of his body wasn’t responding to him. Riku’s shadow stood over him. “Damn, you’re fast,” he muttered.

Then Riku grunted, stumbling forward a bit. His attention turned from Dean to Sora, who had hit him from behind. “Do you never learn?” Riku flashed forward, striking quickly as Sora tried to keep up with Riku’s movements.

Dean pulled himself up completely, despite the deep gash on his back. The hunter moved forward, ignoring the pain that he felt with every single one of his movements. But Dean continued and slashed across Riku’s back, as though returning the favor.

Riku let out a cry of pain, but instead of moving toward Dean or Sora, he moved away to the center. His body started to glow with a dark aura and his feet lifted off the ground. “Behold the power of darkness!” he yelled, raising his Keyblade over his head.

It was as if Riku was everywhere at once and yet nowhere at all. He flew across the area at breakneck speeds, his Keyblade held out in front of him in order to pierce his enemy. When he got to the edge of the barrier, he would disappear and reappear in a different place and do it again. It just got faster and faster. Sora was lucky to dodge a lot of the blows, but Dean wasn’t.

Riku caught him in the chest and suddenly he was flying, flying out of the barrier and onto the ground at Donald’s feet. Everything was sore. His front now looked like his back: cut open and bleeding.

“Heal!” Donald yelled, holding up his wand.

Flowers appeared above Dean’s head, sprinkling golden flecks of healing magic on him. Then the worst of his injuries were gone. “Thanks,” Dean mumbled. His mind was still on the battlefield as it lit up with a purple flames that originated when Riku slammed back onto the ground.

Sora was panting, various nicks and burns all over his body.

“Can’t you do something?” Dean asked Donald.

Donald shook his head. “The barrier’s too powerful. My magic can’t get through.”

“Heal!” Sora yelled. The same flowers appeared above Sora’s head, healing the worst of his injuries.

Riku scowled. “Useless. Pathetic.”

“It’s up to you, Sora!” Dean yelled.

If Sora heard Dean, he didn’t show it. His eyes were focused on Riku and his mind could process nothing but the battle. Sora knew that if his concentration slipped, it could cost him the universe and, most importantly, Kairi’s heart. He could never let that happen.

A shock wave of darkness headed towards Sora and he rolled out of the way in time for Riku to come down with his Keyblade again. Sora met him this time, their blades clashing together. They held it like that for a few seconds, their faces only inches away, each trembling with the effort of staving the other off. Sora's determined ocean blue eyes met Riku's cold pale ones and they each leapt back, using the force as a springboard.

Sora was panting while Riku barely broke a sweat.

Riku charged again and Sora rolled out of the way again. Sora seemed to realize that facing Riku head on wasn't going to win him this fight.

The Kingdom Key wielder kept rolling out of the way of Riku's attacks, even when Riku created shockwaves or sliced the air with his dark powers. The look on Riku's face got darker and darker as Sora focused more on evasive maneuvers than an offense.

"Is that all you got?" Riku asked snarkily.

"Come and get me," Sora crowed. "You can't touch me."

Riku's eyes narrowed and he let out a battle cry as he charged again.

This time when Sora dodged, he slid past Riku, and when he got to his feet, Riku had just turned around. Then Sora slashed his Keyblade across the front of Riku's chest and watched his friend collapse.

"My skills… failed me," he groaned. The dark Keyblade fell to the ground with a clatter as he fell to his knees. His body faded away into darkness, where there was nothing left to prove his existence except for the Keyblade and their memories.

"Riku!" Sora called out, reaching for his friend and finding nothing but air.

The barrier was let down and Sam, Dean, Goofy and Donald entered the area. Sam gently set Kairi down on the floor.

"I'm sorry, kid," Dean said, looking at Sora's sad face. "If it helps, it wasn't him anymore. Cas said so. You knew it."

Sora said nothing.

"Sora! Sora, look!" Donald called. Donald and Goofy were standing at the base of the Keyhole, looking up at it.

"They Keyhole!" Goofy said.

Sora steeled himself. He nodded, knowing what he needed to do. He stepped forward, holding his Keyblade up in order to lock it. But nothing happened.

Sam frowned. "I don't think the Keyhole's finished yet." The wheels began turning in his head.

"So that means it won't work," Goofy said.

"What can we do?" Sora asked.

"'So long as the last princess still sleeps…'" Sam quoted. "That's what Riku said."

Dean looked at the sleeping body of Kairi. "So if we get her to wake up, then we can seal the Keyhole and this whole nightmare will be over?"

"Looks like it," Goofy said. He gazed at the unfinished Keyhole.

"So we just have to free her heart…" Sora trailed off. He looked over his shoulder at the Keyblade that Riku had held. The others were distracted by the Keyhole, so Sora slowly backed up and picked up the abandoned Keyblade. "A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts… I wonder." He examined it in his hand.

Dean looked over at Sora. "What are you thinking?" His eyes narrowed.

Sam's eyes lit up as he realized what Sora had in mind and then a dark look came over his face. "Hold on," he said approaching Sora. "Let's think about this before we do anything drastic."

Sora stepped back. "I need to save Kairi. I don't know what's going to happen but whatever does, you guys need to be there to do something about it."

Dean quickly stepped forward, grabbing the Keyblade out of Sora's hand. "You're not doing this. It's too dangerous." Dean gripped it tightly in his hand and even now he could tell that there was some sort of wrongness to this Keyblade. It wasn't like Mickey's or his own. A dark energy radiated off of it.

Sora gave Dean a defiant look. "Then you tell me how we free Kairi."

"Let's just slow down and think," Sam said, trying to diffuse the rising situation between Sora and Dean. "How did she get there in the first place?"

Sora shrugged. "I don't know. I was on my island and then… she was there." His eyes got hazy as he told the story. "A door opened and a big wind blew her straight at me. I tried to catch her, but… she slipped through me and vanished."

"That doesn't help us," Donald said, coming over.

Suddenly Sora lunged at Dean, and in his surprise, his grip on the dark Keyblade slipped, allowing Sora to take it.

"Sora, wait!" Goofy yelled.

He grinned at them and plunged the Keyblade into his chest. The tip of the Keyblade glowed inside of him and Sora's head tilted back, his expression changing from pain to pleasure. The Keyblade pulled itself out, floating in midair by some sort of magic. The dark Keyblade faded in a purple light, wisps of darkness coming out of it. The wisps formed six orbs of pure light that rose into the sky and headed in the direction of where the princesses were sleeping.

"The princesses," Goofy breathed, his eyes watching the trail the hearts left behind.

Sora's chest lit up and out came another glowing orb which floated into Kairi. His body began glowing golden and his blue eyes looked around, his face peaceful.

As soon as Kairi opened her eyes, the Keyhole lit up, now complete, surprising the rest of the group.

Sora's glowing body began to fall backwards and Donald started to run toward the Keyblade wielder.

"Sora!" Kairi called out, standing up and running for him. She beat Donald to him, but he turned into golden dust in her hands, all of it floating up towards the heavens. "No," she mumbled.

Donald stood waving his fists at the sky. "Sora! Come back, Sora!"

"This is my fault," Dean said, staring at where the golden flecks disappeared.

Sam shook his head. "He made his choice."

"Sora, are you really…?" Kairi trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. "No, he can't be. I won't let him go!" she suddenly yelled, her voice giving away that she was on the verge of tears.

Something in the room stirred, maybe a noise or a drop in temperature, but they all began looking around. Something was off. Something was here.

In front of them, a man appeared out of a column of darkness. He was tall, dressed in a long black and white coat. The top half was black with metal shoulder plates while the bottom was flowy and white. He wore white gloves and had glaring yellow eyes. He had black boots and pants. He wore no shirt, revealing the Heartless symbol on his tanned chest. His long white hair seemed to glow in the low light. "So, you have awakened at last, Princess. The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose. But now it's over."

The group pulled out their weapons, stepping in front of Kairi.

"Ansem," Sam said, making the connection in his head.

"Don't come any closer," Dean said threateningly, Bravura in his hand.

Ansem stepped forward, but his suddenly his step was stopped and he started to move uncontrollably in little twitches until he stopped completely. "Impossible!" the man said, almost as though he was cursing someone.

Riku's ghostly outline appeared before Ansem, facing the group and holding his hands out as though he was the one holding the man back. His face showed the effort that it took to resist Ansem's hold. "No! You won't use me for this!"

"Riku!" Kairi called out in surprise.

Riku's focus turned to the group. "You've got to run! The Heartless are coming!"

Heartless started popping up around the group like daisies and Dean make the assessment that they wouldn't be able to take both the Heartless and Ansem at once. It would too much to fight them and protect Kairi.

Dean nodded. "Let's go."

"What about the Keyhole?" Goofy asked, his eyes glancing at it.

"We'll come back for it," Sam said. "Let's just get out of here alive."

 

The group ran through back through the entrance hall. Dean had Castiel slung over his shoulder. The Beast was gone by the time the group exited the chapel doors. A cloud of gray hung over the group after Sora’s departure, but there was no time to think about it.

Kairi slowed down in the entrance hall, sensing they were about to leave.

“Kairi, let’s go!” Dean ordered over his shoulder. “We don’t have time for this!”

“I can’t leave them behind!” Kairi said, her voice echoing on the walls.

“We can’t stay here!” Donald replied.

“Uh, a Heartless!” Goofy said, pointing to Heartless Shadow that hand scampered up to them.

“It’s just a puny one,” Dean said.

“It’ll take care of him!” Donald approached it, whacking the Heartless on the head with his wand. “Confounded Heartless! Get lost, will ya?”

The Heartless blinked it yellow eyes at them and stood there, even after Donald had whacked it.

“Leave it alone, let’s go,” Dean said impatiently. His eyes looked around the room for any more Heartless, fearing that more would come and they’d be overwhelmed.

Kairi stepped toward the Shadow. “Sora? Is that you?”

“Damn it,” Dean cursed, gripping Castiel’s unconscious body tighter as his eyes caught more Heartless rising up from the floor.

Sam summoned Archfiend, positioning himself in front of Dean and Castiel.

The Heartless swarmed around them, with Dean being forced to put Cas down so that he could summon his own Keyblade and defend them both.

Kairi’s voice carried over to him. “This time I’ll protect you!” Out of the corner of Dean’s eye, he could see Kairi grab onto the little Shadow just as a mob of Heartless overtook them.

“Kairi!” Dean yelled, breaking off from his defensive position in front of Castiel to go help the girl.

But there was no need. Dean stopped short of them as soon as he saw the wave of light coming out from under the Heartless mob, destroying them. In front of him stood Sora, fully restored, and hugging Kairi.

“Kairi, thank you,” Sora said.

“Sora!” Donald and Goofy sputtered out at the same time in amazement.

Dean was stunned into silence.

Sam came up behind them, the hall now cleared of Heartless. “Thanks for the help, Dean.” His eyes landed on Sora. “How the hell?”

“I don’t know,” Dean replied.

“Dean,” Sam said, his voice cautionary.

Dean looked around again, noticing that more Heartless were appearing around them. “We’re going to have to cut your reunion short, love birds, we’ve got company.”

Sora turned, summoning his Keyblade.

A roar sounded through the hall and Dean looked up over his shoulder to see Beast perched on the fountain. “Go! Now!” he yelled.

“Come with us!” Sora said.

“I told you before, I’m not leaving without Belle. Now, go!” he growled. “The Heartless are coming!”

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Dean said, grabbing Castiel and heading out the front door. The others followed him with the Beast covering them so that they could escape unharmed.

As they left the world, Dean couldn’t help but look back at the world and hope that the Beast would okay. Even from here, he could feel the dark energy that the world gave off. It faded from view, but the feeling still lingered.


	10. Chapter 10

"Tell me what happened," Leon said.

The group was now in the small house in the Third District back in Traverse Town. Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie were there, listening to the events that had taken place at Hollow Bastion.

"So the darkness is flowing out of the Keyhole…" Leon trailed off, his mind in thought.

Aerith's face wore a worried expression. "No wonder there are more and more Heartless everywhere. The only way to stop them is –"

"To seal the Keyhole," Sam finished grimly. When no one said anything, he added, "Right?"

Leon shrugged. "Maybe. But no one knows what will happen once it's sealed."

"Well, we can't just stay here," Dean said, crossing his arms. "We have to do something."

Sora nodded. "I've got a friend back there."

Dean could swear that he saw the faintest of smiles flash on Leon's face right before Leon spoke. "That's right. You have one more friend to worry about. Riku's Keyblade must have been born of the captive princesses' hearts – just like that Keyhole you saw."

Sam glanced at Kairi. "So without Kairi's heart, the Keyhole remained incomplete?"

Leon nodded. "I'm sure that once that Keyblade was destroyed, the princesses' hearts were freed. Don't worry, Sora. If anyone can save your friend, you can."

A groan from Castiel, who was put on the bed in the corner of the room, drew everyone's attention.

"I think he's coming to," Dean said, rushing to Castiel's side.

Castiel's blue eyes fluttered open, catching Dean's eyes. "Dean." His eyes wandered over to Sam. "Sam."

"It's okay, Cas," Sam said. "You're safe now."

"No," Cas muttered. "No." His eyes rolled back in his head and the angel was gone again.

Aerith stepped forward, putting a hand to the man's forehead. "He's incredibly weak. What happened to him must have taken a lot out of him."

Dean sighed. "Poor bastard."

"He just needs more rest," Aerith reassured Dean.

"I hope so," Dean mumbled.

"So now we just need to get back to Hollow Bastion," Sora said.

"How?" Goofy asked. "All the pathways are blocked or infested with Heartless."

"You should talk to Leon," Yuffie cut in. "He should be able to figure something out."

Sora nodded. "On it."

"We're in too," Dean said.

"Dean?" Sam said, his voice questioning.

"We need to finish what we started," Dean said. "Even if we didn't mean to start it. But it's Cas' mess too and he's in no shape to fix it, so we have to."

Sam nodded at that. "Okay."

Dean turned to look at Aerith. "Can you take care of him?"

She nodded, a soft smile spreading across her lips. "Of course."

"I'm coming too," Kairi said.

Aerith shook her head. "Let the boys go. I want to make sure you're still okay."

Kairi frowned, obviously unhappy. "Alright, fine."

"I'll be back," Sora promised.

Kairi smiled. "You better be."

 

"Cid, we need to get back to Hollow Bastion," Dean said.

Cid's eyes widened and then he shook his head. "I don't think I can let you do that. The Heartless there are multiplying by the minute. They'd eat your ship up. It'd be a miracle if you lot could get through in once piece."

"Then what can we do?" Sora asked.

Cid shrugged. "Simple. Go around 'em instead of through. Install a new navigation Gummi and take a new route."

Dean crossed his arms. "And where would we get one of those? They don't exactly grow on trees."

"The secret waterway," Cid explained. "When I came here nine years ago, I stored some extra there in case I ever needed them. Never thought a kid and some stragglers would be the ones to use them."

"Thank you for letting us use them," Sam said. "It means a lot."

Cid waved him off. "Please, we all gotta do our part to save our worlds."

"So where are they in the waterway?" Dean asked.

"I hid them in the mural," Cid said.

 

The group went down into the waterway, swimming through the cavern that was underneath the town. They saw Kairi there, standing on the stones, staring at something down one of the tunnels. They climbed out, catching her attention from her daydreaming.

"Kairi?" Sora asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm exploring," Kairi said. "Aerith let me go. She said that as long as I stay out of trouble and avoid the Heartless, I can go where I want."

"What about Castiel?" Dean asked.

Kairi shrugged. "He still hasn't woken up, but I know Aerith is taking good care of him." Her eyes turned back to the tunnel, where a mural of the sun was painted on the stone walls. "It's quite hypnotizing."

"That must be the mural," Donald said.

"The mural?" Kairi asked.

Sora nodded. "Where we can find the Gummies we need to go back and save Riku." He headed toward the mural, swimming out before his feet finally found a foothold closer to the mural. The sunny mural began to glow, and from it, two glowing orbs popped out, floating down into Sora's outstretched hands. Where there was once a sunny mural, now was a picture of the moon.

Sora swam back, placing the Gummies into Dean's hand.

"We'll get these to Cid," Dean said, his hand closing around the Navi-Gs. Sam and Dean took off, the voices of Kairi and Sora talking fading behind them.

 

"You found them?" Cid said, taking the Gummies from Dean. "I'll go fix the ships."

"Thanks," Dean said. "We owe you a bunch."

"It's no trouble," Cid replied. "If anything, it's me who owes you boys." He held up one of the Navi-Gs. "Now if you'll let me go, I have some tinkering to do."

Dean turned to his brother. "I think we should check on Cas."

"I don't disagree," Sam replied.

 

Castiel was sitting up in bed when the Winchesters entered the small house in the Third District. His eyes had a haunted gleam to them, indicating that he was finally fully conscious.

Aerith smiled at the boys' entrance. "He's a lot better now. I think he's regaining some of his strength."

"Thank you so much," Sam said as Dean went straight to Castiel. "We can't thank you enough."

She smiled. "Of course. I'll give you some time." Then she ducked out of the room.

"Sam," Cas said. "Dean."

"We're here Cas," Dean said.

"Do you remember anything that happened?" Sam asked.

Cas shook his head no, but then he brought a hand up to his head, pressing it into his skull. His eyes were squeezed shut and he began nodding his head yes. "Yes, yes, I remember. I remember everything." His opened his eyes, giving Sam and Dean a heart wrenching look. "I did terrible things."

"You weren't yourself," Dean said fiercely. "It's not your fault."

"Yes, yes it is," Cas replied.

"Tell us what happened," Sam replied calmly, sitting on the table in the center of the room.

"When our world was destroyed," Cas started, "I heard your cries, and I came as fast as I could, but Heaven was such a mess, and there were so many prayers, and the darkness kept creeping in, all over the world…" He shut his eyes, the memories flashing before his eyes. "When I got to you both, it was too late. The darkness had already taken you. Our world met its fate shortly after. I woke up in complete darkness, lost in the inky blackness, before someone pulled me out."

"Maleficent," Dean growled.

Castiel nodded. "Yes, Maleficent. She pulled me from that prison and threw me into a different one. I knew she was bad, corrupted. The darkness that she radiated said as much. You must know that I would never work for her willingly."

"We know, Cas," Sam said softly.

"She pulled me apart," Cas said. "She suffocated me and my grace. Polluted it with darkness. I couldn't see, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. This continued for… for I don't know how long. I lost track of time. The darkness became me, and that is all I was." He swallowed painfully. "I helped her, Maleficent, steal the princesses from their worlds. I helped her bring pain to so many. Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine, Aurora… So many worlds I helped bring closer to the edge of darkness…"

"It's okay," Dean said.

Castiel shook his head. "No, it's not. I am a divine entity. I am not supposed to succumb. I was supposed to be stronger than that."

"It's okay, Cas," Dean said forcefully. "It happened, but you weren't yourself. This is not your fault. Maleficent probably would have made this all happen anyway, even without you."

"Just take it easy," Sam said. "Relax and we'll be back."

Castiel looked up abruptly. "Back? Where are you going?"

Sam hesitated. "We're going back to Hollow Bastion."

Castiel's eyes hardened. "I'm going with you."

Dean shook his head. "The hell you are. You're not coming. You need to stay here and rest."

Castiel swung his legs out from the bed. "I'm going and you're not stopping me. I need to redeem myself, Dean. This is the way to do it." He stood up, coming face to face with Dean. Even though he was a little wobbly at first, he straightened himself out.

"You're not strong enough," Dean protested.

"I will never not be strong enough ever again," Castiel said. "I'm doing this." His gaze turned from Dean to Sam. "Sam?"

Sam nodded, meeting Dean's eyes.

"Sam!" Dean exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"If Cas wants to come, he can come." The younger Winchester hopped off the table. "It's his choice. He's old enough to make his own decisions."

"Thank you, Sam," Castiel said with a small smile.

Dean crossed his arms. "Fine."

 

"All set!" Cid said, coming back from the ships. Sora, Donald and Goofy had been there already when Sam, Dean, and Cas had arrived. Up until then, it'd been all small talk. But now Cid was here and they all knew they would have to address the problems looming over everything now. "I gotta say, I wish you all didn't have to face all this danger."

"It's just another day for us," Dean replied, shaking him off.

"Well watch yourselves out there, ya hear?" Cid asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

Sora grinned. "You got it."

 

The group stood on the rocky platforms outside of Hollow Bastion's castle, right in the place that they first started. It was quiet out there, quiet and beautiful. But they all knew that sometimes the prettiest things were the most dangerous. The spray seemed to more obtrusive this time, like a fog that covered the entire falls area.

"Last chance to turn around," Dean mumbled, though his words that were supposed to be barely audible were broadcast around the valley, echoing off the watery walls.

Castiel stepped forward, to the very edge of the rock. "That point was passed a long time ago, Dean." His eyes took in the view, the castle seemingly so far away. Flashes, memories, went through Castiel's mind at the image of that castle. He shut his eyes.

"Castiel?" Sora's voice broke his reverie.

"Let's go," Castiel said, not looking back, though he knew that all eyes were on him.

Inside the castle, they found the library door slightly ajar, so when they were done with the waves of Heartless that kept appearing with every step, they decided to check it out. The library was just as Sam remembered it. Not a book out of place.

At the top of the stairs, they found the Beast with a woman in fluffy yellow ball gown. They both turned as they heard the approaching footsteps. The woman had kind brown eyes with her brown hair up in bun. She looked surprised to see others here, but then her surprise turned to shock when the Beast threw himself in front of her, barring her from Sora and the gang.

"Get out!" he roared, his face furious.

"Beast, it's us," Goofy said, confused.

"Not you," Beast growled. The Beast held out a paw, pointing his claw at the angel. "Him."

Castiel bowed his head.

"What's going on?" Dean asked.

"He is the one who took Belle from me!" the Beast replied fiercely.

"Cas?" Sam asked.

Castiel looked up. "Yes, I did. I was the one who took Belle."

Castiel remembered how he appeared at Beast's castle, in the beautiful, elaborate ballroom. The Beast and Belle were dancing, so entranced with one another, but then Castiel had appeared, his black wings spread out menacingly. The Beast was startled and had snapped out of his trance of civility. Even in his blue suit, the Beast charged at the angel, his animal instincts alerting him to the danger. But Castiel had been ready, and at the last moment, disappeared. He reappeared next to Belle and took her by the arm. The world began to shake, waves of darkness appearing outside of the elegant ballroom windows. But Beast was focused on Belle and Castiel. Though he came running back toward Belle, he was too late. Castiel had disappeared.

Now here he was, standing in front of the Beast again.

"It wasn't his fault," Dean said. "Maleficent made him do everything!"

The Beast roared in response.

The woman, Belle, laid a gloved hand on Beast's arm, and the transformation of the Beast was incredible. Beast relaxed, ever so slightly, and looked over at Belle with big blue eyes. She shook her head at him, a small smile on her face, and stepped out from behind him. Then she approached Castiel.

The angel refused to meet her eyes. "I am sorry for what I did to you." His eyes traveled up to glance at Belle and then the Beast. "To both of you. I was overcome by the darkness. I couldn't… I couldn't see the light." He looked back down at the ground. "I know that I don't deserve your forgiveness, so I do not ask it. But you should know that I am sorry and I will do all that I can to make up for what I did."

Belle smiled, and took his hand. Castiel's head popped up in surprise, his eyes widening with shock. "It's okay. I forgive you." She looked over her shoulder at the Beast, giggled, and looked back at Castiel. "And I know he does too, even if he won't tell you so."

"Thank you," Castiel blurted out. "Maleficent was right about one thing: you are truly pure of heart."

Belle's smile grew. "I don't know about that, but thank you." She looked past Castiel, her eyes traveling to the group behind her. Her eyes grew at the sight of the Keyblade in Sora's hand. "You've come to seal the Keyhole, right? Please, be careful. The darkness is raging deep inside. We've been holding it back, but we can't hold out much longer."

"We?" Sam asked.

Belle nodded. "The other princesses and I."

"We'll take care of it," Sora reassured.

The princess smiled. "I'm sure you will."

"We'd better get moving, then," Dean said. He looked at the Beast and Belle. "I'm sorry we can't stay and chat, but we really need to get going."

"Of course," Belle replied.

"Are you coming, Beast?" Sora asked.

The Beast hesitated. "No. I must stay here to protect Belle. Nowhere in the castle is safe."

Sora nodded.

Dean started towards the library doors. He looked over his shoulder as the others trailed behind him. His eyes briefly met Belle's and the Beast's. "We'll fix this."

Belle smiled and the Beast nodded solemnly right before Dean turned and left the library, all of them headed for the grand hall.

 

The castle chapel still held all the darkness and mustiness that it carried the first time the group was here, but now it held some new, not-so-sinister faces. There were five princesses inside, all standing around, their faces anxious. One of them, a blond with a pale blue dress and matching gloves, stepped forward.

"We've been waiting for you, Keyblade master," the blond said.

"Where's Ansem?" Sora asked, entering the altar area of the chapel. Everyone except Castiel was with him. Castiel had elected to stay in the shadows near the entrance of the chapel, unwilling to reveal himself to the people he had so wronged while under Maleficent's influence.

"Gone," she replied.

Another princess spoke up, this one also a blond but she had her hair down and wore a darker blue dress. "When the Keyhole appeared, darkness poured out of it. It swallowed Ansem, and he disappeared."

The princess in the pale blue spoke again. "Though Ansem is gone, the flood of darkness hasn't stopped. We're working together to hold it back."

"We need you to do that just a little bit longer," Sam said. "Just a bit more time."

She nodded.

The princess in the darker blue was looking off into the distance. "I cannot forget the look on huis face. As the darkness engulfed him, he was smiling."

"I'm so sorry, how rude of us," the one in the pale blue dress said. "I'm Cinderella." She gestured to the princess in the dark blue dress. "This is Aurora."

Aurora waved. "Nice to meet you."

Another princess stepped up. She wore a dress that had a blue top and yellow button. Her black hair was cut short to frame her face with a red bow on top of her head. She had a voice that was high-pitched and sweet. "I'm Snow White." She gave them a small smile.

"I see why they call her that," Dean muttered, noting her incredibly pale skin.

Sam elbowed him in the ribs.

A little girl smiled at them next. She had on a blue dress with a white apron over it. In her blond hair was black bow. "Alice."

"Oh, I remember you," Dean said suddenly.

"I don't believe I know what you're talking about," Alice said.

"No, no." Dean shook his head. "I heard that you were kidnapped. I was at your world. It was all that white rabbit could talk about."

"That silly white rabbit and the mean old Queen." Alice crossed her arms. "The only good thing about getting kidnapped was getting away from them. She was going to cut off my head, you know."

"That's tough."

Sora's face lit up as the last one stepped forward out of the dark corner where she'd been hiding. "Sora, it's so good to see you." Jasmine came toward them. "It's good to see all of you, but you must hurry. Darkness is pouring from the Keyhole."

"It's all we can do to hold it back," Alice spoke up.

"And I don't know how long we manage that," Snow White added.

"We're on it, don't you worry," Dean replied.

Jasmine nodded. "Thank you. Tell Aladdin that I'm sorry, if you see him. I can't go back until everything is right."

Sora nodded. "If any of us see him, we will. Promise."

"Thank you," Jasmine breathed.

"We're counting on you, Keyblade master. In the meantime, we'll do what we can, too," Snow White said.

"Who's that?" Cinderella asked, her eyes catching movement in the darkness near the entrance. "Is someone there?"

Dean hesitated. "He's a friend of ours."

"He's kind of shy," Sam added.

"Oh," Cinderella said. She directed her next words toward the shadows. "You can come out. We don't bite."

"I don't think that's a good idea." Castiel's voice came from the dark corner.

Jasmine's eyes went wide. "I know that voice."

Castiel stepped into the light, pain clear as day on his face, growing even more so when the princesses stepped back.

"It's okay." Sam tried to soothe them. "He's okay now. He's not going to hurt you."

"I know that you all know me," Castiel began, "as the man who took you from your homes. I apologize and I cannot even begin to ask for your forgiveness as I do not deserve it. As I told Belle, I will do whatever I can to make up for my mistakes."

"You spoke to Belle?" Snow White asked.

Castiel nodded. "Yes."

The princesses glanced at one another before Jasmine spoke up. "We forgive you."

Castiel blinked uncomprehendingly. "What?"

Cinderella smiled. "It is in these times that we must show the greatest kindness. If we can't be kind to one another, then it will only be a matter of time before we are all lost to the darkness."

"'Purest of hearts…'" Castiel trailed off.

"What?" Dean asked.

Castiel glanced at Dean before looking back at the princesses in front of him. He had stepped forward during the course of the conversation. "Something Maleficent said once that is only becoming clear to me now." Then his eyes hardened. "We should get moving, so as the efforts here were not made in vain."

 

The grand hall was empty now, and almost destroyed in some places. The temperature dropped drastically the moment that they stepped inside. The Keyhole was exactly in the same condition as it was last time they were here, only now it had the ability to be sealed.

"It doesn't look like the Keyholes we normally seal," Goofy said.

Sora held out his Keyblade in an attempt to lock it. "It's not working."

"Well, they said that darkness was pouring out of it," Sam said. "Maybe there's darkness blocking it?"

"Then how do we get it out?" Donald asked.

Castiel stepped forward, walking until he was right in front of it. He reached a hand out toward the Keyhole, saying, "We go through it." His hand disappeared into the portal, then Castiel stepped inside.

It was a strange world inside, the colors distorted into reds, blues, purples, and black. It was clear and empty and huge. Essentially, it was a void. At the very end, so small that it could be barely be seen, was the true Keyhole.

Behind Castiel, the others had come through and had started walking towards the Keyhole at the very end of the big space. But something didn't feel right to Castiel, and he could tell the others felt the same way. Their movements were stiff and on-edge, practically expecting something to come out at them at any minute. If they could've avoided this, something told Cas that they would have. But there was no choice but to move forward.

That was why it was no one's surprise when a huge beast took form from the shadows, blocking their path with its might feet. It was a behemoth of a Heartless, the insignia plainly tattooed across its pale blue chest. Its black hooves crashed down on the floor, creating shockwaves and its navy fur waved when it roared. Out of the side of its face were two gray horns with another one that glowed at the top of its head. Its yellow eyes fixed on the puny beings in front of it. It walked forward, the ground vibrating underneath its heavy hooves.

Each step shook Dean's entire body. "Everyone, scatter!" The group split up, automatically dividing into Sam, Dean, and Castiel headed to the left and Sora, Donald, and Goofy running to the right.

"Alright, let's go," Dean said, Bravura held tightly in his hand. He ran toward the beast, who seemed to be moving in slow motion. He swung at the beast's leg, but when Bravura hit it, the blow merely glanced off, not even a scratch on the creature.

The leg Dean had tried to hit lifted up and crashed down onto the ground, creating a shock wave that threw Dean off his feet.

"Thunder!" Donald yelled, lightning flashing around them.

The Heartless shook his blue pelt, seemingly unharmed by the magic. It roared and its horn began to glow white.

"Take cover!" Sam yelled, his mind making the assumption that there was some sort of attack to come. Glowing things seemed to have that disastrous effect so Sam got as far away as possible from the beast.

Stronger, more powerful lightning bolts rained down on the group, and Sam could hear the yells of everyone around him getting shocked. Dean barely missed it as he was under the creature, but everyone else was hit by a bolt at one point or another. When they subsided, Sam realized that they needed to find a weak spot for it as its hide seemed to be took thick or the creature too large for anything they did to really do any damage.

Then an idea came to Sam and he knew he had to try it out. "Fire!" A fireball formed at Archfiend's point and flew toward the beast's glowing horn. It hit, but the Heartless seemed unaffected, a blue sheen appearing where the fireball hit.

"How the hell do we kill this thing?" Dean asked, backing up to be next to his brother.

"I have no idea," Sam replied over the roar of the beast.

"Look, up there," Castiel called, his eyes locked on the monster's face.

Sam and Dean looked up, catching sight of Sora running along the monster's back and up to its head where its horn glowed with magical power. When Sora struck the monster's horn with his Keyblade, it howled in pain, even as Sora struck it again and again.

"That's how we kill it," Castiel said, running over to the creature and jumping onto its hind leg. His speed was superhuman, even in his weakened state, and he was already at the creature's horn before Sam and Dean could move even two steps.

The beast doubled over after a few more strikes from Sora and Castiel and its head lowered to the ground, in reach for all. All six of them were striking the beast's horn until it finally fell over with a great crash, shaking the entire floor. Castiel and Sora hopped off of the beast's remains, and then the beast faded away, its pink heart floating up to the sky.

"Now let's go and seal that big Keyhole!" Goofy said.

They all turned to walk down the long corridor that would lead them to the Keyhole when a male voice called them back, "You did it."

"It is Leon," Castiel said matter-of-factly.

Sora turned around and ran back, out of the portal and back into the grand hall.

"Should we follow him?" Goofy asked, scratching his head.

Castiel's eyes were fixed on the Keyhole. "Every second we allow the Keyhole to remain unsealed increases the chance that something will come out of it."

"I guess that means we'll seal it without him," Dean said. He glanced at Bravura. "I always wanted to try that thing he did."

It took a few minutes to get to the end of the dark corridor where the Keyhole lay in wait. Dean held out Bravura like he'd seen Sora do before and he willed it to lock the Keyhole. The familiar white light formed at the tip of his Keyblade and shone into the Keyhole. A click echoed off the walls and then Keyhole disappeared.

When the group re-entered the grand hall, Yuffie was talking. "Besides, I couldn't forget you even if I wanted to!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked while Yuffie smiled.

Leon's attention turned to the group that had walked out of the portal. "Is it sealed?"

Sam nodded. "It's sealed."

Leon looked relieved. "Thank you."

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked.

"Like we told Sora, we came in Cid's ship. This place was our childhood home," Aerith replied.

"This place has a dark history," Castiel said. "The darkness that resides here is stronger than any other world. That is why Maleficent chose to make her home here."

"It wasn't always this way," Leon replied curtly.

"Everything will return to normal should Ansem be defeated," Aerith said softly.

Sora's face was crestfallen. "She means that even though our worlds will be restored, we'll never see each other again. The barriers between worlds will be up again."

"It is better that there are barriers than the darkness that reigns now," Castiel said.

"Don't worry," Sam said. "We'll defeat Ansem."

Sora nodded. "If it means keeping everyone safe then that's what I'll do."

"Are you guys headed back to Traverse Town?" Dean asked.

Yuffie shook her head. "Not now. We want to stay here a while. There's a lot to see."

Dean nodded. "Be careful. I'm sure that even though the world is sealed, it's not completely safe."

"I'll watch out for them," Leon said.

 

Back in the chapel, the princesses stood around, all anxious about something. Alice's face lit up when she spotted Sora and the gang emerging from the dark hallway. "Thank you, everyone. I think the darkness has begun to weaken. I can feel the effect of sealing that Keyhole."

Jasmine's face was still anxious. "But I can feel a powerful darkness growing somewhere far away, just beyond this world."

"It's the heart of the darkness," Aurora expanded on Jasmine's statement. "It must be where Ansem went."

"We'll head there next, then," Sam said.

Cinderella nodded. "Thank you for doing this, all of you. You are all truly guardians of light."

"Your courage can bring back our worlds," Snow White said, gesturing to the princesses around her.

"Once the darkness is gone, all should return to its original state," Aurora said.

"Kairi will be back on the island?" Sora asked.

Cinderella nodded. "Most certainly. And you all should return to your worlds as well."

"I can't go home until I find Riku and the King," Sora replied, frowning.

"Perhaps you'll find them along your way," Aurora replied.

Sora nodded.

"We should get moving," Castiel said.

"He's right," Dean said. "We have no time to waste."

Sora nodded again, the resolve to defeat Ansem in his eyes and to find Riku and the King.

As they left the chapel toward their ships, all of them knew that they were headed straight into the darkest pit of the worlds, straight into a fight for not only their lives, but the lives of all who lived in this ever expanding universe.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I know it's been a long wait for this one, much longer than I wanted. I'm so sorry for that. I got caught up in this pesky thing called life but I'm here to deliver the final chapter for you guys. Hopefully it lives up to your expectations and thank you so much for reading!

The heart of the darkness was a world that seemed to be ripped out of the fabric of space. The moment Dean set foot on this world, he felt every muscle in his body tense up. They emerged from a small rock cave on the edge of a large lake, the water sparkling blue. Rocks were scattered about and big purple and black orbs fell from the sky and into the water, though they made no splash. At the horizon, a group of rocks stood out of the water like Stonehenge. They were surrounded by a purplish light that gave off the idea that there was more than met the eye.

"Gwarsh, is that all that's left of the worlds taken by the Heartless?" Goofy asked, his eyes looking around.

Dean's heart stopped and he looked over at Sam, who mirrored Dean's expression of shock and sadness.

"We're looking at world fragments?" Sam asked.

"So we could be looking at my and Sam's world and not even know it," Dean said.

"My islands…" Sora trailed off. "The worlds will be restored if we beat Ansem, right?"

Donald nodded. "You bet'cha."

"But if we do beat him and all these worlds become restored and disconnected, what's gonna happen to this place? And to us?" Sora asked.

"Well, uh…" Donald fumbled for words. He obviously didn't have an answer for Sora.

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Dean said, though he wasn't sure.

"This is a Heartless world," Castiel said. "It is quite likely that once we defeat their leader, this world will disappear."

"Huh?" Sora and Donald sputtered at the same time.

"As to what happens to us should we still be here when that happens…" Castiel trailed off, refusing to meet any eyes, "what happens to us remains unclear."

"Aw, shucks guys," Goofy said. "Even if this place goes poof, our hearts ain't goin' nowhere. I'm sure we'll find our pals again. Yup, I just know that we will."

Sora nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

Sam and Dean exchanged a look of skepticism, but chose not to say anything. Sometimes a glimmer of hope is what was needed in order to do what needed to be done.

Sora glanced at something in his hand, muttered something under his breath and squeezed it tightly, holding it to his chest. He stuffed it in his pocket and then looked at the group. "Okay, let's go."

"Looks like we'll have to swim," Sam said, looking out at the vast lake.

"Gwarsh, I dunno about that," Goofy replied. He looked down at his feet and the water that he was standing on. "I don't think somethin's quite right here."

"What the hell is this?" Dean asked, taking a step out onto the lake. "Suddenly we're all pulling a son of God and walking on water?"

"It's a Heartless world, Dean," Sam replied, examining the water that was now under his feet. "I doubt they have any concept of how physics works."

"We should get moving," Castiel said. "We don't know how much time we have."

The group started across the lake, their feet sloshing on the water with every step.

 

The Heartless world was filled with surprises and twists. They faced countless Heartless along the way. Beyond the lake was a huge chasm with gems popping out from the ground. It was always dark and with a sense of foreboding, however, they all knew they had to dive deeper and deeper into the world in order to find Ansem. And once they did, they were going to end all of this.

They had to go through miniature pieces of all the worlds they had been to and they had to fight a huge gargoyle-like creature. It was made easy because they could fly around, just like they had been able to in Never Land. The creature was made quick work of and the group continued into the crater where they climbed more layers below the surface and faced even more Heartless, including another of those behemoth Heartless, until they reached the ornate golden doors.

Sora stopped short of them when he saw them.

"What is it?" Sam asked.

"This is it," Sora said. He looked at the gently gurgling waterfalls, their waters sparkling peacefully, but his eyes were mostly focused on the doors. "This is the final resting spot."

"Yes, I can feel it," Castiel said. "The darkness' final hold is beyond that door. It is sure to be stronger than anything we have encountered thus far."

"We'd better rest up and prepare then," Dean replied. "We don't know what waits for us behind there."

"Well we do know one thing that's behind those door," Goofy said.

"What's that?" asked Donald.

"Ansem," Goofy replied. "Whatever else he's got planned'll be behind this here door."

"What he'll throw at us is what I'm more concerned about," Dean said.

"We need to be ready for whatever he gives us," Sora said.

Sam nodded. "I think we all can agree that Ansem is the biggest threat and the one that we should all go after, in case he has any minions come after us."

Castiel nodded. "I agree, but someone has to take care of the minions or else they'll just get in the way of our real target."

"I think you just volunteered to be our minion manager, Cas." Dean grinned.

Castiel sighed. "Very well."

Sora had a sly smile on his face. "You can't expect him to do that all by himself, do you, Dean?"

"Are you volunteering too, short stack?" Dean shot back.

"No way!" Sora exclaimed.

"Then don't try to volunteer me," Dean said.

"You volunteered Cas!" Sora pointed out.

"We don't have time for this," Castiel said, but the two ignored him.

"Yeah, because he suggested the role," Dean replied to Sora.

"Guys!" Sam said, raising his voice. "Come on, we don't have time for this. Stop wasting your time fighting. It doesn't matter."

"Gwarsh, I'll do it if it's causing this much of a fuss," Goofy said, scratching his head.

"Thank you, Goofy," Castiel said, nodding his head in the knight's direction.

"So are we ready now?" Donald asked, his wings crossed and his foot tapping impatiently.

"Are you really that impatient?" Dean questioned.

Donald gave him a look. "We have worlds to save, you know, and they don't have time for all of this arguing," he quacked.

"Does everyone have everything they'll need for the fight that lies ahead?" Sam asked. The group around him nodded. "Are you all sure?" They checked their equipment and supplies one last time and then nodded that they were all ready. "Okay, then let's go."

Sora headed for the doors. They seemed so familiar to him, like something he once saw in a dream. "We're sure we're ready?" Sora asked. "Last call."

"Let's do it," Dean replied for the group.

Sora pulled open the doors and stepped into the bright light and into the sun.

 

"Is this… is this my island?" Sora looked around at his environment. He looked at the tall tropical trees and felt the blistering sun and the gentle sea breeze. This was, without a doubt, his island. His home. The one that he had thought lost to the darkness.

"This is your island?" Sam asked from behind the boy. The group had all come through the doors, which had promptly disappeared as soon as they were all through. There was no going back.

"Yeah," Sora replied. "Riku and I used to swordfight all the time on this beach and on that little island over there." He pointed to smaller island off of the coast where a wooden bridge had been built, connecting the two islands. "Oh, I should show you guys the secret place!"

"The secret place?" Sam asked.

"We have other matters to attend to," Castiel started to protest.

"It'll take five minutes," Sora replied. "Besides, we might find something there since there's nothing out here." He ran toward the dark shadowy part in between the gigantic vine-covered tree and the peaceful waterfall.

"This world has been connected," a deep sinister voice rang out over the island.

Sora stopped in his track, turning to look at his also bewildered friends. Around him, he began to see parts of his precious island begin to disappear. The island where he and Riku would swordfight. The seaside shack. The secret place. The waterfall. Gone.

"What was that?" Goofy asked.

"Ansem!" Dean blurted out, his muscles tensing and his pulse starting to race.

Ansem's voice spoke again. "Tied to the darkness… soon to be completely eclipsed. There is so very much to learn. You understand so little. A meaningless effort. One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

The island quaked and the ocean's blue color deepened into a purple. The beach became fragmented and shattered, and at the very edge of it, where the beach used to be, stood Riku in his red and blue muscle suit. His back was to the group. The voice was coming from Riku.

Ansem spoke again. "Take a look at this tiny place. To the heart seeking freedom, this place is a prison surrounded by water. And so this boy" –Ansem spread Riku's arms out- "sought to escape from his prison. He sought a way to cross over into other worlds. And he opened his heart to darkness." Riku's body turned around, and as it did so, it faded, leaving behind Ansem's body, the one that they had seen briefly in Hollow Bastion. This time a dark shadow seemed to follow him around, its yellow eyes fixated on Sora and the gang. It was black and human-like, but floated instead. It had two strong arms and had shadow horns coming out of its head. Its gruesome teeth were showing and its body was bandaged in various place, most notably on its mouth where the bandages made an X on its face.

"Riku!" Sora cried out, extending a hand to his friend.

"Don't bother," Ansem scoffed. "Your voice can no longer reach him where he is. His heart belongs to darkness."

"Say that to my face, bitch," Dean muttered, Ansem still talking even as he said the words. He uttered a small cry of surprise when Sam elbowed him. "What? We were all thinking it," he mumbled.

"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came," Ansem said, his voice consuming the small world. He rose into the air, the shadow flexing its muscles. "You see, darkness is the heart's true essence."

"That's not true!" Sora said. "The heart may be weak. And sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!"

Ansem rose even higher so that he was towering over the group. "So, you have come this far and still you understand nothing. Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!" He spread his arms and a wave of dark aura from his fingertips made everyone shield themselves.

Weapons came out instantly and Sora was the first to go up and attempt to strike Ansem, but Ansem's guardian caught his Keyblade in between his large dark hands.

Sora gasped in surprise and dropped to the ground, his Keyblade hanging in the guardian's hands for only a split second before it returned to Sora's hands in a sheen of light.

Dean ran up, his feet sinking into the soft sand, and jumped to reach the Heartless leader. The sand prevented him from going as high as he wanted, but he was still able to reach Ansem. This time, the guardian didn’t interfere and he landed a solid hit.

 A fireball flew past Dean, so close that he could feel the heat from it, and hit Ansem squarely in the chest while the man was open. Ansem let out a grunt of pain.

“Come, guardian!” Ansem yelled, and the guardian at his back phased to the front, creating a barrier between him and the fighters. Goofy’s shield harmlessly bounced off of the dark guardian. After a few seconds, it retreated, but the guardian immediately sent out discs of dark energy.

The discs sliced into the group of fighters, though Goofy was lucky and managed to put his shield up in time to reflect them. The others were ravaged by the discs, sliced and bleeding in some places.

Dean could feel the dark energy sapping his strength, drawing on his desire to fight, his will to live. He hissed in his pain, trying to resist the discs’ dark nature. “We got hold him down, guys! He’s moving too fast for us to really hit him!”

“How?” Castiel asked, his trench coat sliced around the edges, but otherwise unhurt.

Sora spoke up. “Magic. Give him everything we got and then you three grab him, hold him down, and we’ll take of it.”

Donald’s cry of pain distracted them and as they turned, they saw Ansem’s guardian holding the wizard, choking the life out of the poor duck. A dark aura began to shine around the duck, seeming to inflict even more pain.

“Donald!” Goofy yelled, running at Ansem.

Sora took off and since he was used to running in the sand, he shortly overtook Goofy. The Keyblade wielder jumped up, swinging the Kingdom Key in an upward arc. “Let my friend go!” The blow shook Ansem to his core and his guardian promptly released Donald, dropping him onto the sand where he gasping for air.

Goofy took a defensive stance over the duck so that he could recover and Donald wheezed his thanks.

Sora was caught in a tense battle with Ansem’s guardian, who had come in front of Ansem and was swinging his dark arms at Sora. Sora held his own for a little bit but then he was pushed back onto the sand.

Luckily, Sam came up just then, blasting fire and ice at Ansem, which stopped his movements toward Sora. But then the guardian stepped in, taking the fire and ice without a scratch.

Dean took this opportunity to dash behind Ansem and slice the Heartless leader from behind, gaining the attention of Ansem’s guardian. Dean paused for just a split second, allowing the guardian to grab him in both of his hands and feed off his heart. He could feel the energy in him staring to drain and cold seep through his entire body. But it was worth it. Ansem was wide open with his precious guardian preoccupied. “Now guys!” he yelled with the energy that he had left.

Goofy swung his shield, hitting the guardian’s hands, causing the guardian to drop Dean. Donald, now back on his feet, let loose a huge lightning bolt, striking Ansem and his guardian straight through the core. Sora and Sam raced forward, with Sora slashing Ansem upward and Sam bringing Archfiend downward.

Ansem’s guardian vanished. He scowled and flew up into the air and into the trees as the ground shook, causing the guardians of light to stumble around on the sand.

"Wah!" Donald yelled.

"What's happening?" Goofy shouted.

"My island!" Sora exclaimed as the tree that he had loved since childhood split open, the bark splintering, revealing a dark inside. It was like an arena, whatever had come up from the island as everything split open and twisted around to suit Ansem's dark purpose.

"Just stay calm!" Dean ordered through the tremors.

Seconds later, the tremors stopped and Ansem cackled as he lowered himself into the dark crater that he had created.

Sora took off like a lightning bolt to the crater, not even saying a word to the others.

"Sora!" Sam called after him. "Wait!"

But he didn't.

Dean was right on Sora's tail and followed the boy inside the crater just before the force field went up.

"Dean! Dean!" Sam called from the other side of the field.

Dean stopped and turned around, though Sora kept going further into the crater. "Damn it, not again!"

"I can't get though," Castiel said, putting his hand up to force field and then sharply jerking it back as though it had stung him.

"Ahyuck, we've got bigger problems," Goofy said, holding his shield up.

Dean looked past Sam and Cas, watching as swarm of Heartless crawled toward them from the other side of the force field. "Crap."

"Watch yourself in there, Dean," Castiel said right before he turned around with his angel blade in hand.

"What he said," Sam said.

"Dean!" Sora's voice called out.

Dean turned around, his eyes going wide with awe and a little bit of fear.

Sora was standing at the feet of a huge Heartless. It was taller than the bark walls of the crater they were in, which Dean would say was about the height of a small skyscraper. It had piercing yellow eyes that were covered by strands of wavy darkness. A huge heart-shaped hole was cut into its torso.

"Is it just me or does that thing kinda look like you?" Dean asked.

"It's not just you," Sora replied. "I've faced him before, when my island was destroyed. Go for the hands and the face."

The Heartless brought down its fist, shaking the ground and creating a pool of darkness where its hand was. Shadows leapt out of the pool, their twitchy features crawling towards Dean and Sora.

"You got it," Dean said, making a break for the fist. He brought down his Keyblade again and again, ignoring the pool of darkness at his feet. He was stopped when a Shadow scratched him from behind, and so he turned his focus on the pesky little things, leaving the fist to Sora.

The Heatless picked its fist back up, its silent yellow eyes looking down at the duo. It spread its arms open and from its core, released orbs of purple energy that rained down from the sky. One of them hit Dean and he jolted as a shock wave of pain erupted through him, his muscles twitching.

The Heartless stepped around, swings him arms around lower, closer to the ground. Sora rolled out of the way just in time, but Dean was caught in it, the arm throwing him into the wall.

"Dean, heal!" Sora yelled.

Flowers appeared around Dean's head, dust sprinkling out of them, and energy returned to him, the pain slowly fading away. He got to his feet and ran toward the giant Heartless again. Sora was jumping up, trying to reach one of the Heartless' hands. He got in about two or three hits per jump, but it didn't really seem to affect the Heartless much.

The Heartless reached out to Dean, as if trying to grab him, and then Dean got an idea. As the hand came toward him, he jumped, landing on the creature's arm. He quickly ran up the arm as the Heartless' yellow eyes fixated on the human on his arm. Then Dean jumped, slicing Bravura right through the center of the creature's face. It brought both hands up to cover its face as Dean fell to the ground, landing hard on the ground, the impact sending shock waves of pain up his legs.

The Heartless slowly disappeared, a pink heart floating out of its core.

"Whoo!" Sora yelled with glee.

"Don't celebrate yet," Dean said as the temperature dropped another few degrees. "It's not over yet."

Ansem appeared before them, a snarky grin on his usually solemn face. "It will never be over, Dean Winchester. Sora, the Keyblade bearer of the Realm of Light."

Sora rushed at Ansem, swinging his Keyblade at the Heartless leader. But Ansem simply tossed Sora aside with the flick of his wrist.

"You cannot win," Ansem said. "Give up now. Let your hearts return to the darkness whence they came."

"Not a chance," Dean growled. He arched Bravura up, swinging it so that it would hit Ansem squarely on the head. But the Heartless leader's guardian caught it between the palms of its dark shadowy hands.

"Don't you see it yet?" Ansem said. "The light will always be smothered by the darkness."

"I don't think so!" Sora yelled, coming up from the side and slashing his Keyblade across Ansem's midsection.

The guardian let go of Bravura, allowing Dean to drop to the ground with a grunt. Ansem grimaced, clutching his stomach. He floated away a few feet, still doubled over in pain.

"Take that, Ansem," Sora crowed.

Dean got to his feet, skeptical of how easily the boss went down.

Ansem looked up, a smile on his face. "Not so fast, guardian of light." He laughed maniacally, spreading out his arms, and the environment before them changed. Everything faded into inky blackness and suddenly they were all standing in a void, including Sam and the others. Ansem was nowhere to be found.

"What's going on?" Dean asked, his voice echoing.

"Behold the endless abyss!" Ansem's disembodied voice rang out. "Within lies the heart of all worlds, Kingdom Hearts!"

In the inky blackness, Dean could just make out a white door on the horizon, surrounded by tall gray stones, almost as though they were pillars.

"Look as hard as you are able. You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light," Ansem continued. "From those dark depths are all hearts born. Even yours."

Suddenly, emerging from the shadows, a huge ship appeared. It was gross and malformed, as though the entire thing were made from sinew, muscle, and bone. A skull with pink skin stretched over it was at the very front. A huge guardian was at the back, sitting on top of what looked to be the heart of the ship, which was protected by a translucent force field. Right in front of the guardian was Ansem, shirtless, connected by his back with long tubes that were attached to the ship. He held a two-pronged staff, a blade at each end, identical to the bat-like blade that Riku had wielded. The entire thing was a living, breathing ship, one that made Dean want to puke right there in the realm between worlds.

"Darkness conquers all worlds!" Ansem declared, spreading his arms open.

The invisible floor beneath them suddenly disappeared and they all fell downward, into the abyss. Dean had to watch as his brother and Castiel were pulled into a portal leading God knows where, quickly followed by Donald and Goofy before the portal sealed up.

Sora and Dean were left falling into the vast pit off darkness, the ship getting smaller and smaller in their views.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, his voice echoing as through the void. "Cas!" He refused to let it end like this. He would not allow the darkness or this asshat Ansem to win. He would see his brother and his friend again. Dean refused to let it be any other way. Then suddenly Dean was floating in the void, soft yellow dust coming off his body.

"Dean!" Sora yelled, still falling.

Dean swooped down, grabbing Sora by the arm. "Come on, kid, let's do this."

Sora nodded and then Dean flew up, still having Sora in his grasp, so that they were level with Ansem's nightmarish creature. "You can let go now," Sora said, and so Dean did and the Keyblade wielder floated there, determination flashing in his young eyes. "Let's teach him a lesson."

 

* * *

 

Sam was surrounded by darkness. He couldn't see anything beyond himself. His grip on Archfiend tightened. He could hear scuttling around him, the scuttling of Heartless no doubt. He was hit from behind and though he turned, whatever it was had vanished into the darkness.

"Dean!" Sam called out. "Cas! Anyone!"

No one answered, of course. Sam knew he was alone. It was just him and the darkness, one on one.

Sam swung blindly around, the noise of vanishing Heartless the only thing letting him know that he was hitting something. Sam knew he couldn't do this forever. Not alone. Not when he knew that something dark and deep within him was calling him to the darkness. But for now he had to keep going and he had to stay strong.

Yellow eyes began to appear around Sam, surrounding him. Shadows.

Sam charged at them, slicing a shadow right down the middle, right in between the eyes. "Who's next?" he yelled.

 

* * *

 

Castiel began to panic. He was back again. Back in the darkness. Back in his prison. He couldn't control the Heartless anymore, couldn't stop them from advancing. He felt their dark waves come closer and closer to him.

His grip tightened around his angel blade. He was an angel of the Lord. He would fight back. The darkness was something to be fought. He wouldn't let it win, not this time. If the Winchesters had taught him anything, it was that he was in control of his own destiny. And his destiny was not to perish here.

He did not get saved from the darkness once only to be swallowed by it again.

 

* * *

 

"We gotta destroy the ship!" Dean yelled as Ansem slid into the ship, recovering from the wounds he gained battling Sora and Dean. "If we destroy the ship, then Ansem has nowhere to hide."

"But what about our friends?" Sora asked.

"We'll just have to hope that they'll be safe," Dean replied. "If we defeat Ansem, I'm sure we'll find them again."

Sora's eyes caught something dark and shimmering amongst the ship. "Dean, look, a portal!" He flew toward it, despite Dean's protests.

"Sora!" Dean yelled, but he was too late as Sora disappeared into the portal and it closed right before Dean could follow him.

"Damn it," Dean muttered. "Guess I'm on my own."

He flew up, dodging blue bolts of energy that were being shot at him, as the giant guardian waved its arms around. He slashed at the things creating the bolts and slowly one by one, Dean knocked out the ship's defense systems. He had to keep dodging the guardian's arms and the other bolts coming after him, but he knew in order to do bigger damage to this guy, he needed the ability to get near the ship without being shot at. He had just finished up with the top half and was about to move on when Sora popped up seemingly out of nowhere.

"Dean!" he yelled.

"Sora!" Dean flew toward the teenage boy. "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sora replied. "I thought you were right behind me." His eyes were on Dean, but out of his peripheral, he was keeping track of the ship's movements, especially that guardian. "Sorry for leaving you."

"No time for apologies now. You're back and that's what matters," Dean replied.

"Dean, look out!" Sora yelled just as a portal appeared behind Dean and sucked him in. Sora reached out for Dean, grabbing his hand and getting sucked in as well, but just as they were going through, their hands slipped and each of them lost sight of the other.

Dean dropped down into a dark room, not a glimmer of light to be seen. He held Bravura tighter in his hand as he heard the scuttling of Heartless around him. A dark orb floated in the middle of the room, swirling and festering.

"Hello? Is somebody there?" a voice called out from the dark depths.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, instantly recognizing that voice anywhere. Out of the darkness, Shadows erupted from all directions, crawling and clawing all over Dean. He was slashing blindly, unable to keep up with the swarms of Heartless that were attacking him. Then suddenly, there was a weight lifted off of Dean and the Heartless began disappearing one by one.

"Dean," Sam breathed, holding Archfiend and staring at his brother with wide relieved eyes. "I have never been so happy to see you in my life."

"You can tell me that again as soon as we get out of this mess," Dean grumbled.

"I think we should hit the orb," Sam said, his eyes looking around for more Heartless, though none seemed to be showing up. "It didn't exist until you showed up."

The brothers whacked at it for a while before the room suddenly slowed down and suddenly they were back at Ansem's ship, being cast out near the pink ugly skull at the front that somehow reminded Dean of Voldemort.

Sora and Goofy popped out of the portal just a few seconds after Sam and Dean did. The face roared, chomping and biting its gross yellowing teeth at the four of them.

"Time to take this sucker down," Dean said, flying at the face and slashing it down its center. The face contorted under the Keyblade, its pink exposed jaws gnawing the empty air. Sora and Sam flew in, copying Dean's movements, delivering a crippling blow to the soft skin of the creature.

The skull went slack-jawed, its mouth opening wide to reveal another dark portal that led who-knew-where. It moved with red and black and green in it, always shifting.

Dean and Sora shared a glance, then Dean turned to Sam. "You and Goofy head to the heart of this thing, right underneath the guardian, and take it out from there. If I'm right, we're going in the portal to rescue Donald and Cas."

Sam nodded. He patted his brother's back. "Stay safe."

Dean returned the favor. "You too. Be careful."

Sam nodded and flew up with Goofy into the heart of the ship, where the shields had been let down, exposing the white underbelly of the ship, a vulnerable part of it.

"Ready?" Dean asked Sora, who nodded, and then they both flew into the portal.

 

Dean was alone in the darkness. Sora had disappeared. They'd gotten separated again, just like last time. He could hear the scuttling of Heartless around him as they closed in on him from all sides, their yellow eyes the only thing really visible in the darkness. His hand tightened around Bravura, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Suddenly, there was a flash of silver and Castiel appeared from the dark depths, swinging his angel blade around. "Dean," he breathed, his musky voice obviously relieved to see the Winchester.

Dean swung his Keyblade, taking out a Heartless in front of him. "I'm here, Cas."

In a matter of seconds, the dark room was empty, the only source of light being the same dim orb floating in the room, same as Sam's prison.

Dean turned to Cas, briefly embracing him. "Are you okay?"

Castiel nodded. "I'm okay, Dean. Where are we?"

"A prison," Dean replied. "But I'm busting you out. We have to go help Sam and the others finish this once and for all." He pointed at the glowing orb in the center of the darkness. "That's our ticket out."

 

Dean and Castiel flew out of the pink skull's mouth moments before Sam and Goofy, now with the aid of Donald and Sora, hit the ship where it hurt: right in the heart. The center of the ship seemed to stop and everything was now lifeless.

"Is that it?" Dean asked, flying up to meet the rest of the group.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Sam replied.

Just then, the ship shook and out from his hiding place came Ansem, still larger than any building Dean had ever seen. His wounds were fully healed from the battle with Sora and Dean. His face was an expression of rage. He held his two edged staff between his hands. "You have not won."

"Not yet," Donald cried.

"Not ever!" Ansem roared. He lashed out furiously, his staff twirling and jabbing at the air and at the guardians of the realm of light.

Dean watched as Sora went flying back, followed by Goofy. "Sora!"

"Goofy!" Donald called. The wizard turned his attention back to Ansem, raising his wand, and yelling, "Thunder!" A lightning bolt came down, striking the giant boss, but it hardly seemed to phase the giant being.

"Sam, look out!" Deran yelled and he flew in front of his brother, holding up Bravura just in time to block one of Ansem's jabs.

"Thanks," Sam breathed.

Dean nodded, trying hard not to notice the pain that was shooting up his arm.

Sora came flying back with Goofy trailing him.

"He's faster, stronger, and more powerful," Dean said as Sora got closer. They barely dodged some of his jabs.

"We have to defeat him," Sora said.

"We will," Sam assured them both.

"How?" Goofy asked.

Glowing orbs of darkness came shooting at them from Ansem, where he had summoned them from the dark realm around them. The group quickly separated, though for Dean, it wasn't enough. An orb came flying at him, hitting him square in the back. He tumbled through the air.

"Dean!" Castiel yelled, dashing over.

"I'll cover you," Sam said, floating between the angel, his brother, and the giant Heartless.

"Dean," Castiel said, helping the Winchester brother upright. "Are you alright?"

"I'll just have to shake it off, Cas," Dean winced. Darkness flowed all around his body in tendrils, little after effects from the dark attack.

Donald flew over just then, yelling "Heal!"

Flowers appeared over Dean's head, sprinkling down some sparkling glitter and chasing away some of the darkness. Not all of it disappeared though, with some still barely visible and circling Dean's body. "Thanks," Dean said, feeling the pain ease even just a little. "Definitely avoid those things."

Dean looked up, his attention being brought back to the fight. Sam, Sora, and Goofy were circling the edges of Ansem's reach. It seemed as though they had come up with a small strategy. Sam and Goofy distracted Ansem, drawing his attacks in their direction, then Sora would fly in and land a hit or two before Ansem went after him.

The strategy wasn't perfect, and as Dean watched, he saw how risky it was for both the distractors and the attackers. Dean knew that it couldn't go on like this. They would all be dead long before Ansem was defeated.

Then Dean's eyes caught the cord on Ansem's back.

"Dean, I know that look," Castiel said. "You have an idea."

"Yeah, I do," Dean replied. "Cas, follow me. Donald, tell the others to cover us."

Donald nodded and flew off.

"What is it?" Castiel asked.

"The cord on Ansem's back. He's attached to this ship. He's probably getting his power from it," Dean said quickly. "So if we cut it-"

"Then Ansem becomes powerless," Castiel finished. "But how do you know it will work?"

"I don't," Dean replied. "But I think it might be the only shot we've got." Dean flew off in Ansem's direction, staying to the outside of it. He could hear the battle cries of his friends, though Sam's in particular stood out to him. They were keeping Ansem's attention and now Dean was at an angle where he could see the thick black cord that went from Ansem's back to the hideous giant Heartless ship.

"We probably only have one shot at this, so let's make it count," Dean said.

Castiel nodded. "I'm ready."

Dean's eyes were on Ansem and when he deemed that Ansem was completely unaware, he gave the command. "Now."

The angel and Winchester flew toward the cord in the small passage between Ansem and the rest of the ship. They were almost there when Ansem caught them out of the corner of his eye.

"No!" Ansem yelled.

"Keep going!" Dean called to Castiel.

Sam's voice yelling "Fire!" and Sora's voice yelling "Deep freeze!" could be heard in the background as their comrades upped their attacks. Ansem flinched, but he wasn't fully phased. The cord wound around as Ansem moved, making their target harder.

"We're almost there!" Dean yelled. His eyes were completely focused on the cord. He tightened his grip around Bravura, aching to feel the Keyblade slice through the cord to end all of this.

Castiel gritted his teeth, his attention now on Ansem. He could see in his mind where this was headed and that was something he wanted to prevent. The angel turned around, flying straight at Ansem's face, his angel blade positioned to strike.

The Heartless leader's face turned into one of surprise and then one of hatred. Ansem took a hand and batted the angel away, though not before Cas dug his blade into the Heartless leader's hand.

"Cas!" Dean yelled, pausing in his flight.

"Dean, go!" Castiel yelled.

"We got this!" Sam said, flying in.

Dean flew off again the cord in his sights. He took Bravura and sliced the cord clean through, all of his pain and rage and hatred going into that last hit.

"No!" Ansem yelled, his body beginning to convulse with darkness starting to eat away at his body from his feet, working itself all the way up to his head. The ship began to shake, seeming to face the same fate as its captain.

"Everyone get clear!" Sora yelled.

The guardians flew a safe distance away from the ship and watched it get devoured by darkness until only Ansem's body, his normal body, remained.

Sora flew over to him, where he was weakly flying toward the big white door: Kingdom Hearts.

"It is futile. The Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness," Ansem said, his voice slower and weaker. His eyes turned towards the door. "Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness!" The white doors cracked open, darkness spewing out like fog. "Supreme darkness!"

"You're wrong," Sora interjected. "I know now, without a doubt that Kingdom Hearts is light!"

The dark fog stopped as the doors opened wider and a bright light cascaded out of the doors, so bright that everyone had to close their eyes. But no one was more affected than Ansem, who had to turn from the light, the leader groaning with pain in it.

"Light? But why...?" Ansem groaned. Then his body disappeared, peeling away and shattering in the presence of so much light. Then the light slowly faded, leaving them once again in darkness, though the doors were still slightly ajar.

"Come one, we have to close the doors!" Sora yelled.

The group of six landed on the small sliver of ground and headed up the pathway toward the white doors. They were all trying to push the door shut, which was unexpectedly heavy, when Goofy stopped, peeking in at something inside.

"Stop staring and keep pushing!" Donald yelled.

"Gwarsh!" Goofy exclaimed.

Donald peeked in, trying to see what Goofy was reacting over. "The Heartless?! Hurry!"

"It's not shutting," Dean groaned. "Why are these doors so damn heavy?"

Suddenly a gloved hand reached out and grabbed the door's edge, pulling with them. "Don't give up!" a familiar voice said.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed.

"Come on, Sora! Together we can do it, all of us!" Riku said.

“Okay!” Sora said.

The effort was doubled, but yet the doors would barely budge. They moved but at an exceptionally slow pace, one that would not outrace the approaching Heartless. They were approaching ever faster, now with a chance to escape their realm, and it was clear that the doors wouldn’t be shut in time for them to reach it.

“It’s hopeless!” Donald wailed.

One by one, the Heartless began disappearing, their darkness scattered again across the realm. A bright light illuminated a mouse figure in the distance, holding a Keyblade above its head, the shadow of which was identical to Sora’s Keyblade.

“Your Majesty!” both Donald and Goofy cried out in happiness and disbelief.

“Mickey?” Dean said, confused. “He’s the king you’ve been looking for?”

“That’s ‘Your Majesty’ to you, Dean!” Donald quacked sternly.

“Now, Sora! Let’s close this door for good!” Mickey’s voice echoed across the realm.

“Close it, quick!” Goofy said, still pushing on the door.

Sora hesitated. “But…”

“Don’t worry,” Mickey reassured. “There will always be a door to the light.”

“Sora, you can trust King Mickey,” Goofy said.

Riku glanced behind him and his eyes grew wide with fear. “Now! They’re coming!”

“Donald, Goofy, thank you,” Mickey said. “Dean, be careful out there, ya hear?”

“You got Mickey,” Dean called back, then swiftly corrected himself when Donald cleared his throat. “I mean, Your Majesty.”

When the door was almost closed, Riku said, “Take care of her.”

Sora nodded before stepping back, his Keyblade appearing in a column of light in his hands. He held out his Keyblade toward the white doors and a beam of light shot out of it. On the other side, Mickey was doing the same. The sound of a lock clicking was heard and slowly the white doors faded away from existence. The gray rock path continued on in front of them, disappearing into the horizon.

There was silence for a moment, but then Castiel spoke up. “There’s been a shift.”

“A shift?” Goofy asked.

“In the universe, in the world order. Everything is going back to the way it was,” Castiel replied.

“Hey, what’s that?” Sam asked, spotting was seemed to be something floating in the darkness.

Sora turned around, his eyes lighting up. “Kairi!” He ran over to her without even thinking about it.

Donald tried to follow, but Goofy held him back.

“What’s she doing here?” Dean asked, utterly confused.

“Their hearts are connected, Dean,” Castiel replied. “That connection led her here.”

“Young love,” Dean deadpanned.

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not,” Sam said.

“Yes,” Dean answered simply.

They watched as the two were separated and Sora let go of Kairi’s hand, promising her that he’d come back to her.

“Where’s she going?” Sam asked.

“Back to her world,” Castiel replied.

When Kairi was completely out of sight, Sora came back to the group.

“You alright?” Dean asked.

Sora nodded.

“Sam, Dean,” Castiel started. “It’s time.”

“Time?” Dean asked.

“I can’t keep us here any longer. The pull to go back to our world is too great,” Castiel replied.

“What about them?” Dean asked.

“Their work is unfinished,” Castiel said.

Sam nodded. “I guess this is goodbye.”

“Take care of yourselves,” Dean added.

Sora grinned. “We will, I promise. But you have to promise that too.”

Sam and Dean shared a meaningful glance.

“We’ll do our best,” Sam replied diplomatically, though he meant every word nonetheless.

“See you guys,” Goofy said.

“Be careful!” Donald said pointedly.

Then Castiel let the pull to their world overtake them and the Winchesters and the angel were gone, just like that. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were left at the stone path leading to the edges of the universe with another adventure looming ahead.


	12. Epilogue

Dean woke up in a green field in the middle of nowhere, in the same place the darkness had swallowed them. The sun reflected off of the black metal of his 1967 Chevy Impala, temporarily blinding him. His brother Sam stirred beside him. Dean squinted in the light, making out a figure standing over them. “Cas?”

“Yes,” the angel replied.

“We’re home,” Sam said, sitting up. He placed a hand on his head, trying ease his throbbing headache.

“Everything is as it should be,” Castiel said. “Lucifer is out. The apocalypse is still nigh.”

“Great,” Dean groaned sarcastically. He sat up slowly and then attempted to get to his feet. He placed a hand on his car, his baby, lovingly gazing at it. “Never thought I’d miss it so much.”

“So we’re still at the same place we left off?” Sam asked.

“Essentially.” Castiel looked around. “But we saved it from a bigger apocalypse, one of universal size.”

“Feels almost like a consolation prize,” Dean muttered. “We can save the universe but our own world is still in danger.”

“We will prevail,” Castiel assured the brothers.

“And we learned some new tricks,” Sam replied. He held out his hand to summon Archfiend, but the dark sword didn’t appear. “I can’t…?”

Dean tried to summon Bravura, but he found much of the same thing. The Keyblade was gone. “What gives?”

“The rules of our world are back in place,” Castiel replied.

“Figures,” Dean scoffed.

Castiel tried to find something to satisfy the Winchesters. “I still have my angel blade.”

“Well no duh, Cas,” Dean replied. He took a deep breath. “Come on, let’s go.” He started towards the car, pulling the driver’s door open.

Sam took the other side. “Where to?”

“Anywhere,” Dean replied. He slid inside and slipped his key into the ignition, smiling as he felt his baby purr. “We got work to do.”


End file.
